Hail is consistently one of the costliest severe weather events, causing billions of dollars in damage annually to cars, homes, and crops in the United States. One of the places it commonly occurs is right here in Central Missouri.
Over the past 15 years, there have been over 5000 reports of hail from unique storms in Missouri. The majority of reports come from Kansas City, St. Louis, and Springfield, and this is due to the fact that, since there is a denser population, reports are more frequently sent in compared to areas where not as many people may be readily available to observe the hailstones. In this data, 2011 had the highest number of reports, nearing 800, whereas 2021 had the lowest number of reports at under 200. This is because of the differences year to year in the presence of ingredients needed for the production of severe hail.
The first important ingredient is convective available potential energy, otherwise known as CAPE. This is the amount of fuel the atmosphere has to use for storm production, so less CAPE generally means weaker storms, whereas more CAPE typically means stronger storms. The amount of CAPE present also drives the strength of the storm’s updraft, which is essential for hailstones to be suspended in the storm long enough to reach a large or damaging level…