baltimoresun.com

« Bill now a Cat. 4 storm | Main | Bill takes a breather; no change in course »

August 20, 2009

Weds. storm drops baseball-sized hail

Severe thunderstorms rolling across southern Maryland yesterday produced a number of funnel clouds and what witnesses described as baseball-sized hail. Here are details from Steve Zubrick, science and operations officer for the National Weather Service forecast office at Sterling:

NOAA"An intense supercell formed yesterday afternoon (19 Aug 2009) just 
after 4pm in SE Charles Co. MD. As the storm intensified as it moved 
east into St Marys Co, it produced large hail up to baseball-size just 
south of Leonardtown.

"The storm was rotating and prompted us to upgrade our severe t-storm 
warning to a tornado warning...and while we had multiple reports of 
funnel clouds, no confirmed touchdowns or extensive damage have been 
reported.

"An impressive storm!"

For the record, the largest hailstone on record in the U.S. was nearly the size of a soccer ball! That's the one in the 2003 NOAA photo above.

If anyone has pictures of the Leonardtown hailstones, please send them to me at frank.roylance@baltsun.com and I will post them here.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:11 AM | | Comments (0)
Categories: Events
        

Post a comment

All comments must be approved by the blog author. Please do not resubmit comments if they do not immediately appear. You are not required to use your full name when posting, but you should use a real e-mail address. Comments may be republished in print, but we will not publish your e-mail address. Our full Terms of Service are available here.

Please enter the letter "y" in the field below:
About Frank Roylance
Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1992, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page.

Follow @froylance on Twitter
-- ADVERTISEMENT --

Recent posts

Maryland Weather Center
WJZ Weather Forecast
Area Weather Stations
Resources and Sun coverage
• Weather news

• Readers' photos

• Data from the The Sun's weather station

• 2009 stargazers' calendar

• Become a backyard astronomer in five simple steps

• Baltimore Weather Archive
Daily airport weather data for Baltimore from 1948 to today

• National Weather Service:
Sterling Forecast Office

• Capital Weather Gang:
Washington Post weather blog

• CoCoRaHS:
Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. Local observations by volunteers

• Weather Bug:
Webcams across the state

• National Data Buoy Center:
Weather and ocean data from bay and ocean buoys

• U.S. Drought Monitor:
Weekly maps of drought conditions in the U.S.

• USGS Earthquake Hazards Program:
Real-time data on earthquakes

• Water data:
From the USGS, Maryland

• National Hurricane Center

• Air Now:
Government site for air quality information

• NWS Climate Prediction Center:
Long-term and seasonal forecasts

• U.S. Climate at a Glance:
NOAA interactive site for past climate data, national, state and city

• Clear Sky Clock:
Clear sky alerts for stargazers

• NASA TV:
Watch NASA TV

• Hubblesite:
Home page for Hubble Space Telescope

• Heavens Above:
Everything for the backyard stargazer, tailored to your location

• NASA Eclipse Home Page:
Centuries of eclipse predictions

• Cruise Critic: Hurricane Zone:
Check to see how hurricanes may affect your cruise schedule
Most Recent Comments
Categories
Blogroll
Blog updates
Recent updates to baltimoresun.com news blogs
 Subscribe to this feed
Monthly Archives
Stay connected
Powered by Movable Type 3.36