When a thunderstorm rolls into our area the ominous looking clouds can turn our day into what looks the dead of night, it can be raining cats and dogs, there can be lightning all over the place with deafening thunder and still, it might not be considered a “severe” thunderstorm.
There are certain criteria that must be met before a thunderstorm is considered severe, winds have to be at 57 mph or higher OR hail has to be falling that is at least 1” in diameter or bigger.
Of course, if a tornado has formed or is forming, the storm is then deemed severe. But let’s get into the hail aspect a little bit. You always hear of hail being “dime size” or “pea size”, etc. These are obviously in relation to size and 0.75” hail is about the same as penny sized hail.
Quarter size hail is approximately the size of one inch hail and if you get golf ball sized hail that’s a hail stone that’s right around 1.75 in diameter. When an area gets larger hail than that, classifications jump up to the tennis ball, baseball and softball sizes.
Tennis ball sized hail is 2.5” in diameter, baseball sized hail is around 2.75” in diameter, and softball sized hail is about 4” in diameter. Even bigger is the grapefruit sized hail. It’s 4.5” in diameter!