Epic hail pounds Texas, upping damage to nearly $2 billion this month
Hailstones the size of softballs smashed windows, dented cars and caused extensive damage to homes across parts of North Texas on Monday.
The hail damaged cars -- knocking out all the glass, including side mirrors -- in parked vehicles, and even broke home windows like an icy intruder.
The community of Wylie, Texas, about 10 miles east of Plano, was particularly hard-hit. There, hail as large as 4.25 inches in diameter fell on Monday evening.
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According to the National Weather Service in Dallas, there were 59 preliminary reports of "severe hail" between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. local time on Monday. The largest hailstones fell in Wylie, where hailstones were as large as 4.25 inches in diameter.
The hail damage was so extensive, including to school buses, that the Wylie school district canceled classes on Tuesday at all of its 18 campuses, according to WFAA News.
"We are still assessing damage to Wylie ISD facilities," district spokesman Ian Halperin told the TV station. "So far we are finding broken glass, some water damage, and evidence of damage to rooftop air conditioning units."
Drivers caught in the hailstorm sat helplessly as their windows shattered, spreading glass inside the car and allowing the ice to enter the vehicle.
Hail damage can quickly add up. A series of hailstorms in Texas during March cost at least $1.1 billion in insured losses, and Monday's storms are likely to raise that tally by at least several hundred million.
According to Steve Bowen, a meteorologist at the insurance company Aon Benfield, insured losses in Texas from the past four weeks are "expected to exceed $2 billion."
The NWS said the Dallas area has had an unusually high number of large hail events during the severe thunderstorm season so far.
In a Facebook post, the NWS office in Dallas said the average number of severe hail reports (1" hail or larger) from 2007 to 2015 is 157. So far this year, there have already been 188 such reports.
In addition, this part of Texas averages 14 significant hail reports by this point in the year, yet so far in 2016 there have already been 30, the agency stated.
The hail was well forecast thanks to recent upgrades to the Weather Service Doppler radar network, which can better detect and estimate hailstone sizes than previous technology provided.
According to WFAA, Sara Correa was driving with her eight-month-old girl when she got caught in the hail.
"The back window was just completely shattered through. It was the scariest thing I've ever been through," Correa said.
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
