Major giant hail event in Southern Brazil - South America

[Alexandre Aguiar]

Over 20 towns were affected by giant hail in the evening hours of Saturday (October 20th) in the Brazilian southermost state of Rio Grande do Sul. Over two hundred people were injured by the huge hailstones. 21 thousand homes and buildings suffered total ou partial damage. Car windows in the streets were smashed. The photos are incredible:

http://www.metsul.com/secoes/visualiza.php?cod_subsecao=28&cod_texto=956

We strongly suspect a tornado caused part of the damage observed in the city of Ronda Alta. Here are the pictures from that town:

http://www.metsul.com/secoes/visualiza.php?cod_subsecao=28&cod_texto=955

Alexandre

 

[Chad Cowan]

Over 20 towns were affected by giant hail in the evening hours of Saturday (October 20th) in the Brazilian southermost state of Rio Grande do Sul. Over two hundred people were injured by the huge hailstones. 21 thousand homes and buildings suffered total ou partial damage. Car windows in the streets were smashed. The photos are incredible:

http://www.metsul.com/secoes/visualiza.php?cod_subsecao=28&cod_texto=956
Alexandre

Is that a meter stick in the pictures half way down, under Santo Cristo? It's tough to tell if the ruler is in the correct position to measure, but the picture with the stone on the scale is ~11cm which is 4.33 inches, and ~350g (.77lbs)... wow.

To put that into perspective, the largest recorded hail stone in the US was 17.8cm (7in). This record was almost broken this year in SD.

 

[Eric Flescher]

previous hail records

I did not know Babe Ruth was a stormchaser?
Re"Never let the fear of busting keep you from chasing." -Babe Ruth (?))


harhar

but seriously

wasn't the record hailstone in Kansas or Nebraska and then the record was rewrittne in Nebraska or SD a couple of years ago?
Are world records of hail by diameter , circumference or what ?

wasn't there some conjecture or argument relating to the biggest and what makes the hail the biggest?


:::::

Is that a meter stick in the pictures half way down, under Santo Cristo? It's tough to tell if the ruler is in the correct position to measure, but the picture with the stone on the scale is ~11cm which is 4.33 inches, and ~350g (.77lbs)... wow.

To put that into perspective, the largest recorded hail stone in the US was 17.8cm (7in). This record was almost broken this year in SD.

 

[Terry Tyler]

wow, those are some of the most amazing photos ive ever seen with hail and whatnot...

very interesting article, alexandre...though i cant really read it...

 

[Earl Faubion]

Translate

A couple of good sites for translating text or page links:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
http://www.google.com/translate_t

 

[scott r currens]

Over 20 towns were affected by giant hail in the evening hours of Saturday (October 20th) in the Brazilian southermost state of Rio Grande do Sul. Over two hundred people were injured by the huge hailstones. 21 thousand homes and buildings suffered total ou partial damage. Car windows in the streets were smashed. The photos are incredible:

http://www.metsul.com/secoes/visualiza.php?cod_subsecao=28&cod_texto=956

Wow, those must have been some amazing supercells to spit out hail that size. Do you have any satellite images saved from the event? The area looks hilly with only a few trees on google earth. I wish someone got a shot of one of the supercells. Certainly a destructive event that will take a long time to recover from.

We strongly suspect a tornado caused part of the damage observed in the city of Ronda Alta. Here are the pictures from that town:
http://www.metsul.com/secoes/visualiza.php?cod_subsecao=28&cod_texto=955
Alexandre

Narrow path of intense damage; I have to agree that it appears to be the result of a tornado. Not surprising given the gorilla hail from some obviously strong supercells.

 

[David Drummond]

Anyone noticed the tornado image in the upper left? If you don't get it, reload the page, they change each time. I think it belongs to Eric Nguyen.
http://www.metsul.com/secoes/visuali...&cod_texto=956

 

[cdcollura]

Anyone noticed the tornado image in the upper left? If you don't get it, reload the page, they change each time. I think it belongs to Eric Nguyen.
http://www.metsul.com/secoes/visuali...&cod_texto=956

Yeah!

Isn't that the June 12, 2004 Mulvane storm?

Try right-clicking on the images and it won't let you save them either. I guess they practice what they don't preach ;-)

 

[Alexandre Aguiar]

Mr. Christopher Collura

You used the right word. You "guess".

The photo is in fact from the source mentioned above and was selected by the webdesign company we contracted to design the homepage last year and not by us. Based on that finding, I will immediately order them to replace it by another photo we can provide.

Now you have the facts that allow you to guess and judge other people freely Mr. Collura.

Alexandre Aguiar

 

[Alexandre Aguiar]

Wow, those must have been some amazing supercells to spit out hail that size. Do you have any satellite images saved from the event? The area looks hilly with only a few trees on google earth. I wish someone got a shot of one of the supercells. Certainly a destructive event that will take a long time to recover from.

Narrow path of intense damage; I have to agree that it appears to be the result of a tornado. Not surprising given the gorilla hail from some obviously strong supercells.

Scott

1. Satellite Images:

http://www.metsul.com/secoes/visualiza.php?cod_subsecao=28&cod_texto=954

Radar video from a dopller radar 350 miles far from the storms locations:

http://www.simepar.br/tempo2/palavrameteorologista/extras/temp201007.wmv

2. A survey was conducted in the last hours by the government's weather center and they concluded it was an EF2.

Best wishes

Alexandre

 

[jladue]

I didn't know that the Brazilian government adopted the EF scale. I believe it's the only country outside the US to do so. I wonder what training they used. Atmosphere Environment Canada decided not to adopt it because of its complexity.

Jim

 

[Darren Stephens]

That is the Mulvane tornado. I was there and have a photo that is very similar.

 

[Robert Rohloff]

Thanks for sharing, it is always interesting to see events in other parts of the world. I am glad not to have been near that hail event.

 

[Ernani Nascimento]

I didn't know that the Brazilian government adopted the EF scale. I believe it's the only country outside the US to do so. I wonder what training they used. Atmosphere Environment Canada decided not to adopt it because of its complexity.

Jim

Hello Jim,
No Brazilian government agency adopts the EF or F scale for rating damage caused by tornadoes/severe_storms. In fact, there is no Brazilian agency **regulating** damage assessments associated with severe weather events in that country.

What happens is that there is a team of researchers -- which only very recently became part of a national research institute in southern Brazil -- that has been conducting damage assessments for a while and have gained lots of experience doing that. They are doing a fantastic job, but as yet their effort does not represent a truly official tornado damage assessment. I do believe (and hope) that this initiave, still in "research mode", will lead to a regulation on tornado/storm damage assessment in Brazil in the future, which may or may not adopt the EF scale. So we cannot say that in Brasil the EF scale is adopted.
Cheers!
Ernani

 

[Eric Flescher]

thanks for posting that

Did it say what the biggest ones were - the size? sorry if I missed it?

Nice pics



http://www.metsul.com/secoes/visualiza.php?cod_subsecao=28&cod_texto=956

Thanks for posting !!!