Storms in Texas result in massive hail and damaged buildings

TEXAS — Many Texans woke up Friday morning to the damage caused by Thursday night's storms that stretched from North Texas down to the Hill Country.

Central Texas

The San Marcos and Wimberley areas experienced massive hail and downed power lines, resulting in isolated power outages. San Marcos ISD experienced a two-hour delay Friday morning.

York Creek in Guadalupe County, south of Austin, reported three collapsed buildings, torn roofs, damage to homes and at least one person injured by flying debris.

North Texas

The storm extended into North Texas in Denton County, where there were reports of hail and damaging winds.

Seven people were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries in Delta County, northeast of Dallas, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

Across the state

The National Weather Service issued several tornado watches and warnings in advance of the storms. Roads will continue to be cleared as the damage is assessed Friday morning.

Massive hail

151 weather reports were recorded across the state. The majority, 131, were hail reports.

The storm's largest recorded hail on Thursday evening was 6.25 inches in melon-sized Johnson City, west of Austin. It's almost record-breaking because on April 28, 2021, the largest hailstone ever in Texas was 6.40 inches in Hondo. In Texas, it is rare for hail to be larger than 4 inches.

To put it in perspective, the National Weather Service's scale for hail size does not exceed five inches. After all, everything is bigger in Texas.

Other hail reports from across the state in the past 24 hours include 4.50 inches of hail in Itasca and Granbury (grapefruit size), 4.20 inches in Henly (slightly larger than a softball), 3 inches in Katemcy and Cleburne (large apple size), and 2.75 inches in Brady (baseball size).