Hailstorm pummels Highland Lakes

Hail hit Highland Lakes communities in varying degrees on Tuesday evening, causing widespread property damage, particularly in Marble Falls.

The storm started at around 7:30 p.m. on April 9 and lasted for about 15 minutes, dropping hail ranging in size from peas in Kingsland to baseballs in Marble Falls. Heavy winds and rain accompanied it.

The storm’s impacts were not felt equally across the region. Marble Falls and Smithwick reportedly received the worst of the hail in terms of size, duration, and intensity. Burnet received little to no hail. The storm seems to have avoided most of Llano County, with the city of Llano receiving almost no rain or hail at all.

“Basically, there were two hail paths,” Burnet County Emergency Management Coordinator Derek Marchio told DailyTrib.com after the storm. “The whole Colorado River corridor got hit and the north end of (Burnet County).”

One storm band followed along the Colorado River, starting in eastern Kingsland and running through Granite Shoals, Sunrise Beach Village, Horseshoe Bay, Cottonwood Shores, Highland Haven, Marble Falls, and Spicewood. 

The other band hit northeast Burnet County, impacting the rural communities of Briggs, Joppa, and Jarrell. Briggs residents reported hail the size of tennis balls and baseballs. 

Marchio recommends Burnet County residents fill out damage reports via the iSTAT tool from the Texas Department of Emergency Management.

So far, no serious injuries have been reported due to the hail in Burnet County, but an untold number of cars and structures were damaged in the storm.

Torrential rainfall was also sporadic. On Tuesday night, Lower Colorado River Authority rain gauges showed over 2 inches just south of Burnet and 1.58 inches in Marble Falls. Only 0.56 of an inch fell in Burnet and 0.68 of an inch in Kingsland.

Marchio also reported an unconfirmed sighting of a tornado near Jarrell.

Hail is created when powerful updrafts from storms send water droplets into freezing regions of the upper atmosphere. The frozen droplets collide with liquid droplets and grow larger until the updrafts are no longer strong enough to keep them airborne, at which point, they plummet to the earth. 

dakota@thepicayune.com