Hail — El Paso, Texas

2009-09-16 · near Socorro, El Paso, Texas

$20.0M

Property damage

Magnitude

Event narrative

The supercell continued southeastward along I-10 for several miles. According to TxDOT, hundreds of vehicles along the interstate and other highways suffered extensive damage.

Wider weather episode

A back door front pushed southwestward into far west Texas while an upper level low was dropping southward into eastern Arizona. A veering vertical shear profile with sufficient low level moisture and instability led to 2 supercells forming in the El Paso area. These storms were prolific hail producers. The second supercell produced extensive golfball to possibly tennis ball size hail over a large area of commerce. The damage estimate of $150 million makes this easily the most costly hailstorm in the NWS El Paso County Warning Area since records began.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.7037, -106.2845)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 197012. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.