Hailstorm in....Austria?!?
A very serious hail storm impacted areas of Northern Austria on June 9th. Over 40 reports of hail were made to the European Severe Storms Laboratory for these storms. A good number of these reports were between 6 cm and 7 cm in diameter (approx. 2.5").
Hail is not an uncommon occurrence outside of the tropics during the spring and summer months for many places in the world. We typically think of severe weather as a predominantly Central United States phenomenon.
However, HailTrace has mapped hail in Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, and Australia, places we don't typically think of hail. Also, one of HailTrace's meteorologists has reviewed professional publications relating to hail in Argentina and collaborated with Russian scientists regarding hail in the Ural mountains region.
So, hail is not what we'd call rare outside of the U.S. But even then, we don't typically think of hail like this outside the U.S...
Northern Austria Hail Storm on June 9th
A very serious hail storm impacted areas of Northern Austria on June 9th. Over 40 reports of hail were made to the European Severe Storms Laboratory for these storms. (Bet you didn't know there was a European Severe Storms Lab, diddja? 😏)
A good number of these reports were between 6 cm and 7 cm in diameter (approx. 2.5").
Austria and Europe Seeing a Trend in Hail Storm
Europe isn't completely unfamiliar with hail, but typically it's of the smaller variety and can cause significant damage to agriculture, especially vineyards.
But in the past couple of years, there have been a number of very large and damaging hail storms. These events can be especially hazardous because they are uncommon.
A commercial airplane landing in Vienna, Austria flew through one of these thunderstorms with expensive consequences.
Thankfully, I haven't heard of any reports of injuries on that flight.
The Future of Hail Storms in Europe and Austria
Are these trends of larger hail events in Europe here to stay? Time will only tell. But last year, Italy nearly broke the WORLD RECORD with a stone measuring 19 cm (7.48")!
As always, we'll be watching big hail with interest no matter where it falls in the world. In the meantime, if you're interested in trends in hail in Europe, ESSL has some great research on these topics.
Now read an article I wrote recently on "Radar Down! Creating Accurate Hail Maps During Radar Outages." It is a dive into how HailTrace maps various severe weather, such as hail storms, when NWS radars experience an outage.