All hail breaking loose

By Jeff Poole
Review Managing Editor
Published: June 19, 2008

Monday afternoon, Orange County endured an interesting, yet destructive, weather event.
According to the National Weather Service, a cold weather front over the Appalachian Mountains pushed thunderstorms east toward Orange County, bringing with them lightning, hail and heavy rain, and reports of funnel clouds.
From Albemarle to Fairfax, weather conditions were “severe” with reports of lightning and hail, according to the National Weather Service.
At 2:45 p.m., hail ranging from the size of pennies to ping pong balls rained down on Greene, Orange and Albemarle counties. North of Ruckersville, hail as large as 4 1/4 inches in diameter fell, according to the National Weather Service.
From there, it appears the storm moved in a southeasterly direction through Barboursville and Somerset and off toward Lake Anna.
“The Greene County 911 center reported having seen a funnel cloud at the Greene and Madison border, and we got another report of a funnel cloud near Albano Road,” Orange County Emergency Management Coordinator Craig Johnson reported. “We then got another report of a funnel cloud slightly east of that as well as reports of hail, and that’s when we decided to shelter the firefighters in their stations and activate the reverse 911 system.”
The system automatically called residents in the Barboursville and Gordonsville areas, warning them of severe weather in the area, to stay indoors and away from doors and windows.
As the storm passed through, Johnson said there were fewer emergency service calls than a typical heavy thunderstorm. The most significant were a tree blocking Route 20 and another tree blocking the railroad tracks near Montpelier.
Orange County’s roadways fared far better than their neighbors to the west. According to Virginia Department of Transportation spokesman Lou Hatter, snowplows were dispatched to Greene County to clear hail from roadways. In some cases, he said, anywhere from six to 12 inches of hail were reported in Greene.
Orange’s roadways, he said, weren’t hit as hard.
“Overall, we were pretty lucky,” Orange County Fire and EMS Director Jamie Clark said.
Farmers weren’t so fortunate.
The hail stripped corn stalks and pummeled soybeans, leaving a swath of damage in fields across the county.
“The band of hail that went through Barboursville, Somerset, across Chicken Mountain and up Route 15 toward North Anna damaged a number of farmers’ cornfields in that path,” Orange County Extension Agent Steve Hopkins said.
That damage largely depended on when the corn was planted.
“The later-planted corn didn’t suffer as much damage,” he said. “For some of the full-season, or earlier-planted corn, there will be some yield reduction and some were killed.”
Hopkins said there will definitely be yield reduction overall for local corn and soybean crops.
Dave Starner, superintendent at the Virginia Tech Northern Piedmont Agriculture Research Station, said the hail fell in all shapes and sizes. Some measured as much as an inch and a half across.
“It really fell in all shapes and varieties,” Starner said. “Some were clear and some were white. Some were solid and some had soft centers. It started as tiny snow balls and switched to pellets. Then, it looked like big things jumping out of the grass.”
According to the National Weather Service, inside of a thunderstorm there are strong updrafts of warm air and downdrafts of cold air. If a water droplet is picked up by the updrafts, it can be carried well above the freezing level. As the frozen droplet begins to fall, carried by cold downdrafts, it may thaw as it moves into warmer air toward the bottom of the thunderstorm. However, the half-frozen droplet may also get picked up again by another updraft, carrying it back into very cold air and refreezing it. With each trip above and below the freezing level, the droplet adds another layer of ice.
Finally, the frozen water droplet, with many layers of ice falls to the ground as hail.
Starner said it hailed for approximately four or five minutes amid winds of nearly 30 miles per hour. Additionally, he reported local temperatures fell from 85 degrees moments before the storm, to 62 degrees during the hail storm.
According to the National Weather Service, most hail is small - usually less than 2 inches in diameter.
The largest hailstone fell on June 23, 2003 in Aurora, Nebraska and had a diameter of 7 inches, a circumference of 18.75 inches, and weighed just under on pound. The heaviest hailstone fell in Coffeeville, Kansas on September 3, 1970 and weighed 1.67 lbs.  It had a diameter of 5.7 inches and a circumference of 17.5 inches.
Hail is often measured according to similar-sized objects. Pea-sized hail is about 1/4 -inch in diameter. Marble or mothball-sized hail is ½-inch in diameter. Dime or penny-sized hail-3/4-inch in diameter-or larger is considered severe. Golf ball-sized hail is about 1 ¾ inches in diameter.
According to the National Weather Service, the presence of large hail indicates very strong updrafts and downdrafts within the thunderstorm. These are also possible indicators of tornadic activity.
Often large hail is observed immediately north of a tornado track - but the presence of hail doesn’t always mean a tornado and the absence of hail doesn’t always mean there isn’t a risk of tornadoes.
The National Weather Service forecasts a low chance of precipitation this week with high temperatures in the 70s and 80s, with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms Saturday night.