Hail — Maricopa, Arizona

2010-10-05 · near West Chandler, Maricopa, Arizona

Event narrative

This storm moved from Firebird Lake, south of Chandler to the north Glendale/south Peoria area. This storm produced widespread golf ball to baseball sized hail along its path. Thousands of roofs and vehicles were damaged by the hail. Locations in northwest Phoenix and Glendale were impacted by this storm as well as the storm shortly after noon, compounding the damage. The football coach at Alhambra High School reported at least one injury when large hail struck the practice field. This palm-size hail is likely the largest hail ever reported in the Phoenix area.

Large hail, estimated to be upwards of 2 inches in diameter, punctured 34 skylights at the main warehouse of St. Mary's Food bank in Phoenix. As a result, water ruined approximately 20 percent of the food inventory, the equivalent of 1.4 million meals. Rain soaked the food, which was stored in cardboard boxes. This information was reported by St. Mary's spokesman Jerry Brown. The damages of 200 thousand dollars covered both the roof damage as well as money to replace the ruined food.

Wider weather episode

An unusual series of severe storms with damaging winds and hail struck many portions of the Phoenix area during the afternoon and evening hours.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.2692, -111.9672)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 266216. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.