Hail — Coweta, Georgia

2011-03-26 · near Grantville, Coweta, Georgia

Event narrative

Literally dozens of reports of large damaging hail were received from the public across southern Coweta county from Grantville, Moreland, eastward to Senoia. Most of the hail was the size of golf balls, but hail the size of baseballs, tennis balls, and even isolated reports of grapefruit-sized hail were received from the Grantville area eastward to just south of Moreland. Hail decreased in size to half-dollars by the time it reached areas just south of Senoia. Significant accumulations of hail were noted on the ground in the area and much of the region was blanketed with a hail cover for an hour or more. Extensive damage was observed to vehicles and roofs of homes in the area.

Wider weather episode

A quasi-stationary frontal boundary extended from north Texas to north Georgia early on the 26th. The front took two to three days to move from north Georgia southward to the Gulf Coast. The upper flow was highly zonal, but embedded with numerous vigorous short waves. An unseasonably warm, unstable air mass presided south of the frontal boundary. Numerous areas and complexes of thunderstorms developed in waves repeatedly along the front boundary and plagued north and central Georgia for two to three days. Many counties across the area were impacted by golf ball and larger hail. There was one report of hail over four inches in diameter in west central Georgia near Newnan. While hail was the predominate severe weather type with this outbreak, there were several reports of damaging winds and even one tornado in central Georgia. In addition, there were several lightning incidents as many of the storms produced intense cloud-to-ground lightning.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.2300, -84.8819)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 289990. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.