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Devin Singleton / KAMR
Meltwater rushes past hail several feet thick on Wednesday off Highway 287 north of Amarillo, Texas.
Sure, everything's bigger in Texas. But 4 feet of hail from one storm? That's what the National Weather Service, the Texas Department of Transportation, a local sheriff and others say happened Wednesday in an area north of Amarillo when hail piled up in drifts so wide they cut off a major highway.
The National Weather Service office in Amarillo even posted a photo on its Facebook page, but that wasn't enough to convince skeptics.
"Serious do not think this is 100% hail!!!" commented one person.
"It's a lite dusting of hail on some damn rocks," said another person, referring to the image of a firefighter standing next to what could be taken for boulders.
Potter County Fire Department via NWS
The National Weather Service's office in Amarillo, Texas, posted this photo Wednesday night of a firefighter standing next to deep hail.
"I can assure you we do not have big rocks like that in West Texas," Krissy Scotten, a spokeswoman for the weather service office in Amarillo, told msnbc.com.
"That was 4 feet of ice" that was compacted by rain and floodwater across a wide area, she added.
"It was actually the rain/water that caused the drifts," Scotten said. "Anytime you have hail accumulate 2 to 4 feet high and get over three inches of rain, no matter how it occurs, it's pretty incredible."
As for the darkish color, "we're very dusty around here" due to drought so the hail quickly darkened, Scotten said.
The image, she added, was sent by the Potter County Fire Department and Matt Dryden, the firefighter seen in it, is standing where meltwater had cut through the hail.
"It was like rivers of hail," Dryden told msnbc.com. "It looked like icebergs coming across the highway."
The Texas Department of Transportation confirms it was deep hail dumped by a storm that dropped visibility to near-zero at times.
Texas Department of Transportation
This highway webcam image was taken at 4:10 p.m. local time Wednesday and shows hail on Highway 287.
"Heavy rain and up to 4 ft of hail has US 287 blocked north of Amarillo," it tweeted Wednesday afternoon.
The local sheriff concurred as well.
"You're looking at four foot deep" hail in one stretch, NBC affiliate KAMR-TV quoted Brian Thomas, sheriff of Potter County, as saying. "This was just one of those weird storms that just sat here and came down extremely heavy in this one area."
Amarillo TV station Pronews 7 even shot video of flash flooding triggered by the pea-sized hail and several inches of rain.
"It looked like soap suds," said Pronews 7 meteorologist Steve Kersh. "The storm was moving really slow and a combination of the pea-sized hail and four to six inches of rain created those conditions."
KAMR-TV reported that snow plows were called out to clear roads. Highway 287 was shut down for hours after the storm due to the cleanup.
Several vehicles got stuck in the flash flooding, and two feet of water also swamped a stretch of Highway 136, the weather service reported. One Chevy Tahoe, a large SUV, got stuck in hail up to its hood, Scotten said.
Krissy Scotten / National Weather Service
Covered in dust, this hail drift measured six feet high on April 12 and was still intact a day after it formed near Dumas, Texas, the National Weather Service said.
The pea-sized hailstones weren't big enough to set any size records, and Scotten said the service doesn't keep records for most hail in a given period.
But Jose Garcia, chief forecaster at the weather service in Amarillo, told msnbc.com it probably wasn't the most hail the region has seen.
"Five to 6 feet deep hail" fell in nearby Dalhart, Texas, in 1993 during a very similar storm, he said. It took almost a month for some roads to reopen as the compact ice melted slowly. "It was almost like huge snow drifts," he said.
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Could be God is unhappy with Texas....
Why, when I was a boy I had to walk to school and back home in June through six feet of hail uphill both ways. It was so deep I lost my little brother and we didn't find him till August when it all got melted. We had to put skis on the wagon and that didn't work till we put skis on the horses too.
So, those in New York City, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and any other location where they feel they world spins around just THEM, say it can't be real ? BS. I live in NV/AZ and I've seen phenoms and events no one else will ever experience. Why ? I'm smart enough to know things happen ! And to sit on your couch and call thousands of professional people morons - where ever they are located - is just ridiculous. But, hey, we all walk, talk and vote. God help us ?
And this is why its better to live in the west coast. Mild weather for the most part and an earthquake every now and then. Better than golfball size hail, tornadoes, and hurricanes any day.
You can see a tornado coming, but the earthquake warning system is still a little weak.
It's definitely drifts in the picture but for everyone questioning the fence height we do have many 8' high game fences on ranches around the state so you never know.
A miracle! The green bits of grass at the left of his feet seem to be undisturbed!
What rubbish. Those don't look like rocks to these idiots?
something is deep in the hail photo but i xcan't put the the word down here
Since this is Texas, I can only assume that George Bush caused this too.
1) We have snow storms where we get 8" to 10" and between buildings, trees, etc., drifts get to be 6' or 7' feet tall. We don't call it 6' feet of snow. Get a clue weather people and give us an average, not where it's piled highest.
2) We have had 'hail' like this here in Ohio, albeit not with 4' drifts. This really isn't a surprise to me...other that the fact that it was such a small area covered. We usually get half the state covered. In winter when the temps are below freezing you get 4" of 'hail' frozen together covering you truck sometimes with a layer of frozen sleet over top - fun chipping that off to go to work.
Ice in Texas, fires in the east, Doomed!
It is truly sad that reading comprehension is so poor in this country.
My 2-year old dog is out inthe backyard digging as I told her to do, she is making an underground dwelling as we speak. These crazy weather going on is THE SIGN of rupture on 12-12-12. Har di har.
Yes, The Rupture. It is written that our bowels will all simultaneously rupture 0n 12-12-12.
very amusing quip, TFNJ. i chuckled audibly.
Thank you. I was beginning to worry that I was the only one finding my quips amusing.
Everything is big in Texas - so's their STUPIDITY.
If they had 4 ft of hail we had 1200 inches of rain in 5 minutes, 2400 feet of hail, 4800 feet of snow and we are all still well and alive. We just swam while it rained and then the waters receded back to ground level as moon sucked up some of it while mars gulped most of the water. We stood on top of the hail so didn't get hurt. Jupiter and Saturn fought and grabbed them all out of here. We made snowmen out of the snow and sent the rest to Santa Claus for a December snowing.
Mother Nature must be pissed with west Texas and said the hail with it:)
In Texas they say : If you don't like the weather; wait a bit, it'll change. That is so true. When I was a little girl I saw a hailstorm with grapefruit sized hail. Damaged all the roofs in the neighborhood. But back then they were wood shingles. I've also seen it rain on one side of the street and be completely bone dry on the other.
People in Texas make up so much bull crap about everything. I have learned one thing everyone I ever met from Texas is 99 percent bull crappers and the rest are just as dumb. Texas home of the whoppers and I don't mean Burger King either. Look at Perry,George Bush 1 and 2 all 3 are like moe larry and curly and that is a fact. I call people from Texas Brush poppers because they are all so full of crap they stink and I mean that literally.
Remember the Alamo!
I agree we are full of Bull Crappers (It's all those darn Northern Aggressors that dun moved in on us)
Jim you are so .... literate?
Not sure where you are from but I bet is one of those Yankee states that still believe the gov'ment will save you. PLEASE hold your breath.
Better get your dates straight Shelby. The proper date of "rapture" is 12-21-12. Wouldn't want you to leave this earth 9 days to early...
You get it straight. Shelby said the Rupture, not the Rapture. Two different things.
Well, thank you for the correction, TFNJ, I sure meant to say the Rapture.
12-21-12 is just in case some are left after rupturing.
No, don't get me wrong. I like the NEW Rupture. Thats the prelude to the Rapture. First we watch each other erupt from the inside, then get Rapped.
A lesson learned today not to crack jokes that make you look stupid, hahaha.
LOL, Shelby I was kidding, really. It just sounds funny.
The hail from the sky piles 4 feet high....
DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS!
So they say everything is big in Texas, but not as big as the Maine potatoe that took an entire railroad flatcar to haul that single potatoe.
Everything is bigger in Texas. Even the idiots. Hey, Texas idiots - hail is not gray. It is white.
Maybe they think everyone else is as stupid as they are.
It's gray because of all the loads of crap in that state!
Wow even a story about the weather gets you people going. Sad, but bless your little hearts.
Maybe they had to use an entire railroad flatcar for the potato because it had an "e" on the end of it....
good one dave LOL, but most posting here are too young to remember Danny Q. !!
Okay first of all just because the term is GLOBAL WARMING doesn't mean it only increases WARM WEATHER events! But in this case a hail storm IS a WARM WEATHER EVENT.
Another "Whopper" from the state that gave us G.W. Bush & Rick Perry. Would expect nothing less.
WOW, that looks just like the Caramel Frappe machine at McDonald's has overflowed.
Thanks for the correction Dave my dog will be very happy to know that so she can rest.