Extensive damage
Severe thunderstorms crept across the Carolinas Saturday evening, dropping accumulating small hail and large hailstones that damaged homes and cars.
Extreme hail damage, not often seen in the Carolinas, was caused by the storms, including ripped-off siding, leaves stripped from trees and shredded vinyl fences. Sunday morning, piles of hail had not yet melted in some of the hardest-hit areas.
The largest preliminary hail spotter reports were 4.5 inches in diameter at Lumberton, North Carolina, and 4.0 inches at Rock Hill, South Carolina. “This is a storm that will go down in history,” one X user from Rock Hill said.
The National Weather Service also confirmed that a swath of 90-mph straight-line winds from the same storm caused damage from York, South Carolina, to Rock Hill and onto the Lancaster County line.
Corey Davis, from the North Carolina Climatologist’s office, told AccuWeather that, if confirmed, the 4.5-inch report would tie the unofficial state record for the largest hailstone diameter.