Hail — Upshur, Texas

2024-04-20 · near Gilmer, Upshur, Texas

Event narrative

Nickel size hail reported near Gilmer.

Wider weather episode

A cold front shifted slowly south across Central and East Texas on the morning of April 20th, aided by widespread showers and thunderstorms from Southwest Texas through North Central and into Northeast Texas. Warm and moist southerly low-level flow had persisted throughout the morning, and this resulted in increased low-level convergence along the frontal zone while also destabilizing the downstream air mass. Pre-frontal dewpoints ranged from the upper 60s to the lower 70s. Additionally, filtered heating allowed temperatures to rise into the lower 80s. These low-level thermodynamic conditions resulted in air mass destabilization while any convective inhibition eroded, leading to the warm and moist conditions with moderate buoyancy of near 1500 J/kg. Given these parameters, an isolated strong thunderstorm managed to produce nickel size hail near Gilmer in Upshur County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.7200, -94.9100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1176474. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.