Hail — Hidalgo, Texas

2012-04-20 · near Lindsay Gardens, Hidalgo, Texas

Event narrative

Golf ball to baseball size hail was reported over a swath of the heavily populated urban center of Mission and McAllen.

Wider weather episode

A rapidly developing disturbance racing through southeast Texas triggered the 'loaded gun' of an unstable atmosphere during the late afternoon of April 20th, and thunderstorms exploded into the atmosphere well above the freezing layer. Just three weeks after McAllen/Edinburg/Pharr/Mission was slammed by buckets of golf ball to baseball size hail and 70 to 75 mph wind gusts, fast moving intense storms dropped significantly lesser amounts of hail and rain, but large hailstones just the same, ranging from golf ball to as large as grapefruits! Isolated small tornadoes touched down briefly in Raymondville and Rangerville (southwest of Harlingen), with minor damage to trees on one property. Automobiles took the brunt of the damage with these storms. Preliminary damage estimates put the dollar amount around $10 million.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (26.2871, -98.3139)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 379468. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.