Hail Storm '09
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 11:27AM 
Many of our customers are still feeling the effects of our February 18, 2009 hailstorm which brought golf ball size hailstones. Some of you may still have preserved in your freezer the evidence from that storm. Hail affected literally thousands of homes in the south metro Atlanta area during that Wednesday night storm and no doubt caused millions of dollars in storm damage to roofs, gutters, siding, windows, soffits, yards, cars, outdoor furniture, you name it!
Hailstones can reach speeds of over 100 miles per hour as they fall and can even contain foreign matter such as twigs, leaves, nuts and insects. Hail is formed in storms when raindrops are carried into extremely cold areas of the atmosphere by powerful vertical winds. The longer the tiny specks of ice bounce around in the wind, the bigger they become. When the clumps of ice grow too big for the wind to hold up, they fall to the ground as hailstones. Research has uncovered some interesting details about one of the largest hailstones.
For example, in June of 2003 the thunderstorm which pounded south-central Nebraska ended up leaving something for the record books. It ended up leaving the largest hailstone every recovered in the US. A seven inch wide chunk of ice almost as large as a soccer ball. The National Climate Extremes Committee, which is responsible for validating national records, formally accepted the whopping measurement of 7 inches in diameter and 18.75 inches in circumference. The committee reported that it was not possible to accurately weigh the hailstone as part of it had been chipped off when it hit the gutter of a house. I think we can say that they probably had to replace that gutter!
The committee commended the local residents for finding the hailstone and keeping it from melting. The hailstone is now at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado where it will be preserved indefinitely.
So, if any of you have a hailstone in your freezer, let us know! We’d love to have a photo. While it might not get you into the record books, it will help us remember Hail Storm ’09.
Kathy Reets - Co-Founder and Owner
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