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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.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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No problem Shelby, just trying to save you and your dog 9 days....
I really don't remember the exact date, but 12-12-12 was more appealing so I chose that date. I shall now bury my head in the hail drift.
Woot ! First !
I'd like to see the same areas shown in the photos, from the same angles, but without the hail. That was, all of would have some perspective on this story, and be able to judge for ourselves.
I live in southern Ontario, and we get snow just about every winter. (We got very little this past winter, and that's an anomaly.) Like hail, snow is ice, but it's ice that has coalesced in a different manner. However, once they hit the ground, the act in similar ways, including, with a strong enough wind, forming drifts. Snow and hail conform to the contours of the ground. So, if there's an area of ground that is lower than the surrounding area, the snow (hail) cover will also look lower, and less. That's where the water concentrates when it begins to thaw, or if it rains. So, a gully that is covered with snow or hail will be the focus of the liquid water and any slope as that gully goes along will turn the area in area of moving melt water. With that much hail (or snow), followed by that much rain, creating the image that we saw in the top photo would be no problem.
For the record, both snow and hail are white as they fall, and are white at first n the ground. But if you live in an urbanized area that gets snow, you know full well that it doesn't stay white for very long. In area that has been subjected to a long-term drought, I have no doubt whatsoever that hail would quickly turn brown/black.
For comparison, just show us the same areas before the hail, please.
Not uncommon to see the dust blow b4 a thunder storm in the Tx. panhandle or West Tx. Lived there way too long. Seen lots of brown hail and brown snow with thunder while it was snowing.
It's not that much different than a four foot snow drift, caused by high winds. Hail can be blown around just like snow. Hwy 287 haves valleys and steep hills going to Dumas,Tx. from Amarillo,Tx. I can see drifts being caused in that area. I don't recall ever seeing big boulders of rocks throughout that area.
Didn't Tx file for federal relief last week because of drought conditions? Very interesting timing
We filed for tornado damage after 16 tornadoes in 2-4 hrs. Drought damage was last year and denied by Obama
Typical tall tale from Texas.... notice the fence in the background? 4 feet of hail would have covered it, since the fence is in the ground.
You must not understand "drift"....
That is only a small layer of hail if any, notice the fence post in the back ground as a reference, the average post is 4' above ground, those appear to be 4'. So don't believe everything you see, the guy is just standing in a natural gully. If it was 4' of hail the post wouldn't be visible.
The weather is just starting to get weird, we havent seen nothing yet.
If you don't like the weather in Texas just wait a few minutes!! weather has always had it's extremes in Texas
For the or the record it was real, not rocks I drive this road every weekend The picture was taken from the road the bar ditches are at angles to keep the water off the road. And the area this took place at is know for strange things happening.
Hail is not the only thing four feet deep in Texas! The bs is twice that high.
I am from Midland and I don't believe that story. Sorry
I am from New Jersey and I do.
I'm from my Mama and Mama said it's real.
My mama said I shouldn't play foozeball. But I like foozeball
I have been doing Meteorology for 46 years as a hobby and I can tell you that its impossible to have 4 feet of hail. What is a dead giveaway is, if you look in the background, there are fence posts that are sticking out of the ground, which separates ones property. If there was that amount of hail, those fence posts would be covered. Secondly, the firefighter is not standing in 4 feet of hail. The ground below him shows grass. So what he is possibly standing in is where the land was cut away by rain and erosion over time. I should know this isn't true because I lived in El Paso for years and there you have similarities to what you see. So I think what we see is a light dusting of snow or sleet.
And he couldn't be standing in, as the article says, where most of the ice washed or drifted into a pile?
There's one thing I know from my 40 years worth of experience "Meteorologist are never right"
El Paso is 10 hours from here... Do some homework....
Only steers and queers come from Texas...
and Bretso25. HA!
Steers can't type so are you from Texas
Oh no you didn't...
Ok, so if this is hail why didn't it fall evenly? In the pic you can see there are paths and straight edges to the mounds of hail, doesn't seem like how it would typically fall. Unless they carved out walkways? Why would they do that? Hmmmm.....if the national weather service says it's hail then I'm inclined to believe it but I'm not 100% buying it, something else is going on also.
If you read the article, you'd know that the hail was pushed by flood waters.
I did read the article, thank you, it still doesn't make sense. The hail in the picture seems to be very tightly compacted with lots of room to walk around the structures. Plus, torrents of water pushing hail around and forming huge mounds just doesn't add up, the hail should have melted if there was enough water to gather all of it and make formations like this.
Damn I'm agreeing with a Democrat maybe I am a stupid Texan
Allah is going after George W Bush. :-)
I have lived in this area of texas all my life - for you guys who don't live around here just be glad you don't live here ! Some of you guys didn't see the video of the flooding of the Canadian river caused by the hail here's a Video of it !!!! - This is not the only hail storm we' ve had before - there was one in 2004 in amarillo caused up to 1 million in damages- And remember its not flat all over we got the palo duro canyon which is the 2nd largest canyon in the usa- and that is about 20 miles from amarillo. Get a life you people !
I'm just waiting for the Evangelicals to tell us this means Jesus is on his way back, lol
This is global climate change, as the ice caps melt, the added fresh water in the ocean means the Gulf Stream moves farther south bringing more sporadic weather patterns.
Global Warming...Hahahaha....Millions of years ago, before man existed, Ice covered over 80% of the planet. Then the Global Temperature started to warm up and the Ice started receeding and has been receeding ever since. The polar ice caps have been melting for millions of years, but now all of a sudden its man's fault. Wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the earth is closer to the sun than it has been in over 100 years (our orbit is eliptical, not a perfect circle). Nope I forgot, some idiot with an agenda declared it was man's fault and everyone started drinking the cool aide.
Another reason not to put the new space launch pad in Texas, I am telling you God hates Texas and is messing with Texas. Now Texas has hurricanes, floods, tornados, fire, drought and now 4 foot hail don' you Texans get it or will God have to make a 500 mile across sink hole in the middle of the state to show you he means business. The US will be a lot happier with 49 states. I know every thing in Texas is bigger so why not get your big bull dozers and move the state of Texas into the middle of the gulf. We will call the new country the " Iran of the Gulf", has a nice ring to it, don't it.
Gods just trying to run all of the Yankee's out of heaven on earth.
Someone from Texas wouldn't make something up or exaggerate, would they ?
IT'S "A TEXAS THING"
And they can have it! Think twice before you move there. Plus they don't like strangers.
We do if their cute or have sheep!!!!!
I'm sure it is true about the four feet of hail. The people in Texas only brag about good things, not the bad.
Normal Texas bull@!$%#; there may have been quite a bit of hail, but it was not 4' worth until the hail was piled and mixed with the usual crap on Texas highways by Texas DOT trucks. The brown is not dust, it is the bull@!$%# that happens whenever a Texan talks.
So my question would be this. With the advent of smart phones with cameras and everyone so used to taking pictures of just about everything....why is facebok and youtube just not "flooded"with more pictures for us to see? This wasn't considered news to be picked up on a local station? Just asking
It is and was....
Hey Elk, don't worry about the Foz. They will eventually catch him and put him back in the "institution" and we will not hear his illiterate ranting anymore. Same with some of the other kooks that can't stay on topic.
It is true that it can be pretty flat some places out there. That can cause slow run off of water. When you have hail on top of that freezing and sticking together making ice dams, hail that might have made a 1-2 inch layer on the ground can soon collect into an ice lake or river many feet thick over a very wide area. That can break free into a wash/gully/arroyo/canyon and you have a "ice slush flood" much worse than a "flash flood."