Hail possible today - and a refresher on how we measure it & the storm

Hail is a common threat with thunderstorms in Kansas. We've all seen it and know how destructive it can be. One of my Facebook visitors wanted me to post a reminder on how we estimate hail size. So this is a rundown of what we typically use in the Storm Team 12 office (and it's pretty common throughout the National Weather Service too)

Penny - .75"

Nickel - .88"

Quarter - 1"

Half-dollar - 1.25"

Ping Pong - 1.5"

Golf Ball - 1.75"

Hen Egg - 2"

Tennis Ball - 2.5"

Baseball - 2.75"

Tea cup - 3"

Grapefruit - 4"

Softball - 4.5"

Research has shown that it takes about 35-40 mph winds straight up in a storm to keep penny size hail suspended. Updraft winds of 56 mph are required to produce golf ball size hail. And if you've ever wondered how much wind is needed to produce baseball size hail... it's about 100 mph. I usually tell people that if a storm is producing golf ball size hail or larger, start thinking about where you would need to go if a tornado warning is issued. Storms that produce very small hail (smaller than ping pong ball size) are less likely to produce tornadoes, but it can happen.

So how big will the hail be today? Most of the hail stones will likely be smaller than 2 inches (or hen egg size), but that's still big enough to cause some problems. Still looks like most of the rain will be in northeast Kansas. And believe it or not, it will get cold enough for some rain to mix with or change to snow early Friday in western Kansas. Go figure that now that April is here.

Possible rainfall amounts through Saturday morning