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| Contributed Photo/Ashley Brydon On the corner of U.S. Route 161 and the Goodwin Road in Woodland on Sunday, heavy hail accumulation left the roadway looking like the winter plows should be called out in August. The hail accumulated within a matter of minutes and the majority was gone just as quickly, but some thicker piles did remain on Monday morning. |
By Lisa Wilcox
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — This past weekend was a wet one, with rain and severe thunder and lightning prevalent on both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday’s thunderstorms were unique, however, in that they also produced a heavy amount of hail in the New Sweden/Woodland area, leaving lawns and roadways where the frozen precipitation accumulated looking more like the middle of winter rather than summer.
Though the piles of the white ice pellets were quite the sight to see, hail is really not that uncommon of an occurrence, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Corey Bogel.
“There may be some places in the desert that don’t see a lot of hail, but for the most part, hailstorms happen anywhere there are thunderstorms,” Bogel advised.
Hail forms when a thunderstorm contains updrafts, or strong winds that flow upward into the thunder clouds, forcing the rain to a high enough level that it freezes and forms into ice balls before it comes back down to the earth’s surface.
Freezing rain or sleet is different from hail in that freezing rain forms when the ground is at or below freezing, and sleet forms when the rain passes through freezing temperatures.
The size of hail depends on the strength of the updraft. For the most part, the hail that fell on Sunday was pea-sized, but Bogel advised there were reports of golf-ball sized stones that fell in the Mapleton area.
Though the majority of the hail disappeared within an hour, some of the heaviest piles were still visible on U.S. Route 161 during the Monday morning commute.
“That was due to an upper level trough,” Bogel explained. “Freezing levels were fairly low, only about 3,000 feet. So where the hail accumulated the heaviest, it took longer for it to melt.”
Being caught in a hailstorm can certainly be dangerous. Because of its frozen nature, it can cause surfaces to become slippery, reduce visibility and cause damage to vehicles, possibly even breaking windshields and windows if the stones are large enough.
According to Progressive.com, it is best to pull over to a safe location if possible during a hailstorm since the movement of the vehicle intensifies the force with which the pellets will hit the car. Pull as far out of the roadway as is safely possible. The website also suggests lying down in the seat and covering over with a blanket or jacket to avoid being hit with shards of glass should the windows break.
Social media was full of reports of gardens being beaten down by Sunday’s storm and local insurance agencies advise that there were some damage claims filed.
