Hail in Marion County, Ohio

Quarter-size hail in Marion.

A surface warm front moved northeastward from central Lake Erie and northwest Pennsylvania to southern Lake Huron and western New York between early afternoon and early evening on May 14th. This warm front extended southeastward from a surface low that moved little over western Ontario, near the Minnesota border. Simultaneously, the low's trailing cold front moved slowly eastward across the Upper Midwest. Within the warm sector, a squall line progressed eastward from Indiana into Ohio, while additional storms developed ahead of the squall line. Thunderstorms in and ahead of the squall line produced straight-line wind damage and a bout of severe hail in northern Ohio, especially west of I-71. This squall line occurred in an environment comprised of weak instability, primarily moderate vertical wind shear, and relatively-steep low-level lapse rates near 7C/km.