PHOTOS: DVD-size hail shatters windshields, damages homes in Texas
The above video shows hail falling in Johnson City, Texas, on May 9, 2024.
AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) – After two large supercell thunderstorms wreaked havoc across multiple Central Texas counties on Thursday, viewers of Nexstar's KXAN began sending in videos and photos of the extreme weather they experienced this week.
Some of the photos showed fist-sized balls of hail that had torn through roofs, windshields and metal siding.
San Marcos and Johnson City, both outside of Austin, took considerable damage due to wind-blown hail, KXAN reported.
The National Weather Service even received a report of 5-inch hail from a meteorologist and storm chaser in Johnson City. NWS lists hail of that size as "CD" or "DVD" size.
KXAN viewers also illustrated the size of the hail — as well as the damage they caused — in photos sent to the station:
Frankie Guardiola, another KXAN viewer, said this was the scene outside in his driveway on Thursday evening:
Texas wasn't the only state pounded by destructive storm cells.
Dangerous storms crashed over parts of the South on Thursday even as the region cleaned up from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killed at least three people, and gravely injured a boy who was swept into a storm drain as he played in a flooded street.
The storms continue a streak of torrential rains and tornadoes this week from the Plains to the Midwest and, now, the Southeast. Since Monday, 39 states have been under threat of severe weather and at least four people have died. On Wednesday and Thursday, about 220 million people were under some sort of severe weather risk, with some in danger multiple days, said forecaster Matthew Elliott with the Storm Prediction Center.
The weather comes on the heels of a stormy April in which the U.S. had 300 confirmed tornadoes, the second-most on record for the month and the most since 2011.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.