Refugio county texas storm tonight

[Kevan Wagner]

When I am surfing online I keep the collage of Dupage severe weather warning page in a seperate window.Tonight a warning came in at 10:12 P.m from Corpus Christi for Refugio County for tennis ball sized hail.My question is what speeds do the updraft have to be to create tennis ball sized hail.It had to be a pretty strong storm to create hail of that size.I would hate to be in that county tonight.I bet tomorrow that there will be lots of insurance claims for damaged cars and houses.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Not real sure, but I'd say at least 85-100 mph. Also, large hail is produced by freezing levels that are closer to the ground. The low freezing levels allow the hail to stay frozen longer as it falls to the ground. Of course CAPE plays a big role in large hail because it's directly related to the updraft speed. The larger the CAPE, generally the larger the hail with all things being equal. Also, shear helps the hail to stay suspended longer, thus allowing it to get larger.

 

[Kevan Wagner]

Thanks for answering.I use www.kamela.cod/svr to read the warnings when they come out.The site updates every 2 minutes so if a warning is issued lets say at 10:00 P.M it gets posted at 10:02 P.M. At 10:36 P.M the reissued the warning for half dollar sized hail it must have been weakening by then once it got to the gulf of mexico it died out. A great site to go to receve warnings it covers severe thunderstorm,tornado,flash flood warnings.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Here ya go...

UPDRAFT STRENGTH