Hail in Gwinnett County, Georgia

Amateur radio operators and the public reported hail up to the size of half-dollars and ping-pong balls, possibly some as large as golf balls, across far northwest and north central Gwinnett county from Norcross, to Sugar Hill and Buford. Several reports of penny to quarter-sized hail were also received from this same general area. WSR-88D radar data suggests that the largest hail likely fell near Norcross.

A deep, slow moving, negatively tiltled and highly diffluent upper trough was sweeping from the south central into the southeast U.S. during the April 15th and 16th period. A strong Pacific cold front accompanied the upper-level trough. An unseasonably warm, moist and unstable air mass was present across the southeast U.S. in advance of this weather system. An initial line of strong to severe thunderstorms began to move into northwest Georgia during the late afternoon hours of April 15th. As the line progressed further into the state, it evolved more in a large area of showers and thunderstorms with discrete supercells across especially central Georgia. These supercells produced damaging winds, hail, and three tornadoes. As the event continued into the early morning hours of the 16th, the severity decreased, but widespread rain and thunderstorms, along with isolated severe thunderstorms continued until around daybreak. In addition to the severe weather events, the prolonged and heavy rain event resulted in flash flooding along north Atlanta metropolitan area creeks and streams.