1982: Violent thunderstorms produce baseball-sized hail

Strong temperature contrasts and violent weather outcomes in the springtime in the United States are generally unique in the world. Vast flat-lands that start as in the great coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana gently roll northwest from there into the Great Plains on the central United States and extend up into Canada. Weather systems can traverse the region unencumbered by mountains or large bodies of water. In the spring cold air is still left over from the departing winter, lurking in northwest Canada, in the Yukon. Meanwhile heat from the coming summer is building across Mexico and even Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. When strong winds in the high atmosphere pick up speed and start to bend in great wave patterns and the heat is drawn northward and cold southward in a great dance and battle between the competing seasons. The result of this clash often manifests itself in wild and extreme weather. On April 20, 1982 such a setup became established. In the warm sector violent thunderstorms erupted. At Richland in central Mississippi, strong thunderstorm winds blew over trailers. In Central Texas, baseball sized hail fell at Burnett and hail the size of grapefruits pounded Cedar Park. As much as 4" of rain fell over northern Louisiana and northeast Texas, and flooding occurred around Nacogdoches, TX. A tornado touched down at Lake Travis to the west of Austin, TX. Tornadoes were sighted around Lake Charles, LA near and near Moss Bluff. Meanwhile in the cold sector Northwestern Wisconsin was covered by more than a foot of snow. Weyerhaeuser, WI received 16”, with 15” at Barron.

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