golf ball hail

[drdoom]

In Florida this is very uncommon so I have a question. April 7th east orange county in florida got hit with golfball sized hail. What type of damage should I check my fathers house for from such an event? Could the roof have leaks in the future?
thank you

[vbhoutex]

In Florida this is very uncommon so I have a question. April 7th east orange county in florida got hit with golfball sized hail. What type of damage should I check my fathers house for from such an event? Could the roof have leaks in the future?
thank you

Most definitely have your dad's roof checked for leaks and other damage. If you have outside ac compressors check that the fins on them are not damaged so badly it won't work efficiently.

[Brent]

Yes... Golf Ball sized hail is sufficent to causing damage. If he had any vehicles exposed(i.e. not under a carport of some kind), then he's probably got dents and/or broken windows.

Hail is pretty rare in Florida, but there's been a lot of unusual things this winter/spring. The Panhandle had massive hail back at the end of March.

[wx247]

Here is a question that is going to sound dumb, but...

why is hail uncommon in Florida?

[hurricanedude]

because it is a tropical climate....hail that does form in the upper atmosphere of a thunderstom rapidly melts on its way down.....and hits the surfuse as large rain drops, florida is known for super sized rain drops, I learned this at the skywarn class here in Jax..for example...a baseball size hailstone may reach the surface at about golfball sized in a city like washington,DC, while in a tropical region its warm throughout a larger part of the atmosphere, so the same size hail stone would either melt completely or be nothing more than sleet size.

[hurricanedude]

PS....
most thunderstorms in florida air "air mass" storms....which are usually HP supercells...not hail/tornado supercells

[StormChasr]

Oh, we've had plenty of hail here, but it is generally smaller. The 50DB reflectivity T-storms of the summer often cause hail. It does melt quickly, but I've seen it fairly often.

[wx247]

Thanks for the meteorology lesson...

That actually makes a lot of sense since you put it that way!

[recmod]

Back in March of 1992, we in the Orlando area had two historic hailstorms just two weeks apart that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. I remember driving down interstate 4 from Daytona to visit my mom's house on March 6, the day of the first hail storm. A terrific thunderstorm was in progress, with blinding rain, but I saw no hail....until I exited the interstate in Longwood. Rolling down the off-ramp, I witnessed a sight that I will never forget. The ground was completely covered in hail,...to a depth of over a foot! A Days Inn motel on the side of the road had it's entire facade torn off, with bricks lying all over the cars in the parking lot below. The scene was surreal.

The damage was extensive, with local car dealerships and nurseries hit the hardest. I clearly remember the numberous "Hail Sale" clearance promotions where all the local car dealerships had to clear out their entire inventory of hail-damaged vehicles.
The Melbourne Weather Service Website has a page devoted to these historic storms with many photographs:

Melbourne Website

--Lou