Hail — Roanoke, Virginia

2012-08-01 · near Roanoke City, Roanoke, Virginia

Event narrative

Numerous reports of quarter to golf ball-sized hail were received from trained spotters and the public across the city of Roanoke and surrounding areas just outside of the city on the northwest, west, and southwest sides. Quarter-sized hail was observed at the Glen Cove Elementary School northwest of Roanoke with golf ball-sized hail also observed nearby, quarter-sized hail was observed on Green Ridge Road northwest of Roanoke, golf ball-sized hail on Peters Creek Road near the Roanoke Woodrum Field Airport, and quarter-sized hail was observed on Pine Court Road southwest of Roanoke. These were the hail reports observed outside the independent City of Roanoke. Several hail reports were also observed within the City of Roanoke as well, and those are addressed in a separate entry. One car dealership in Roanoke reported 200 cars receiving $4000 to $5000 of damage each from this hail.

Wider weather episode

A broad, weak upper trough persisted across the eastern U.S., a continuation of the pattern from late July. With a very moist, unstable air mass present across the region and the presence of the upper trough, scattered to numerous thunderstorms developed during the afternoon and persisted even past midnight. The storms generally progressed from the southern Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia to Roanoke and south central Virginia during the late afternoon/evening. Then, around 10 pm EDT, a new area of thunderstorms developed in northwest North Carolina, which also quickly became severe. The main event from all of these thunderstorms was severe hail, namely quarter-sized or larger. The Roanoke area was particularly hard hit when a supercell drifted across the city from northeast to southwest. Isolated thunderstorm wind events were also reported.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.3212, -80.0143)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 407634. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.