Missouri, United States

Some parts of Kansas and Missouri in the United States faced volatile weather on Wednesday night (Mar 13) as storms brought massive chunks of hail into the city. 

Advertisment

The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the Kansas City metro area and added that the area is likely to witness a storm which will bring hail as big as softballs or baseballs. 

“If you are in this warning, get away from windows and shelter inside now!!!” posted the National Weather Service on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

The weather service stated that the storm had earlier produced “softball-sized hail". Taking to X, the National Weather Service said that traffic has been halted for the time being in one part of Interstate 70 because of the weather. 

Advertisment

Also Read: Drenching your head with rainwater during lightning storm increases survival chances by 90%: Study

The National Weather Service issued various tornado warnings in the areas around Topeka as severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for northeast of Kansas City in Missouri.

Senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, Alex Sosnowski said that the predicted hail appeared like “gorilla hail” due to its potential of being huge in size. 

Advertisment

What is gorilla hail?

The term “gorilla hail” has been coined by Reed Timmer, who is a storm chaser and claims to be an extreme meteorologist, said Sosnowski. 

The term has been given because some hail, falling in north-central Kansas and north-central Missouri, can be as big as a baseball, he said.

Watch: Storm in Australia leaves half a million in the dark; power station goes down

“When you get up to tennis ball, baseball-sized or God forbid softball-sized, that can do a tremendous amount of damage, and if you get hit in the head, that could be fatal,” Sosnowski added.

Cars remain especially vulnerable to damage so Sosnowski appealed to people to find a covered place to park their vehicles.

After the hailstorm, there is a possibility of heavy rain in the same corridor. The National Weather Service also issued a warning of the risk of flash flooding.

The biggest threat is torrential rain up to 4 inches (10 centimetres) which is likely to happen on Friday (Mar 15). 

(With inputs from agencies)