Hailstorm "Marks Its Territory"

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Thursday, August 10, a massive hailstorm occurred in northwest Kansas. With stones of more than four inches in diameter, it did tremendous damage to homes, cars, trees and just about everything in its path.

Below is a screen grab of the radar while the storm was still in progress along with the dual-polarization radar's near real-time estimate of hail size trailing behind.
A supercell is a type of thunderstorm that causes the largest hail and strongest tornadoes. The supercell responsible for the giant hail was, at the time of the screen grab, just south of Great Bend, Kansas, nearly dead center in the state. Behind its path (i.e., to the northwest of the storm) are colored lines signifying the size. Near the town of WaKeeney the estimate is more than 4 inches.

Thanks to Michael Armstrong of KOCO TV in Oklahoma City, and to Twitter, the high resolution
satellite data shows a severe gash in the vegetation caused by the hailstorm.

Hailstorms of that nature are not soon forgotten.

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