A Big Hailstorm

@moffittjc (123647)
Gainesville, Florida
April 13, 2025 11:33am CST
I was at Disney World in Orlando on Friday night, and thank goodness I was! Back home where I live (about 75 miles north of Orlando), there was a huge hailstorm in my home city that did some quite extensive damage. We don't get hail very often, so it was a pretty big deal. I wasn't aware of what happened, but when we drove home Saturday morning and entered our city, I was baffled at why there were so many limbs, branches and green leaves all over the roads, right-of-way and yards. I was scratching my head wondering what in the world had happened. I thought maybe a tornado had hit, but there was no visible path carved out like a tornado would do. It turns out that there was what they call a "microburst," where there is a sudden and forceful downdraft of wind from a severe storm. It's like a tornado that touches down and doesn't go anywhere. And with this microburst came quite a bit of hail. I was worried about the condition of my truck, but was hoping it was okay since I park it under a very large oak tree (anyone who has ever had hail damage to their vehicle knows my concern). When I got home, my truck was completely covered in leaves and branches, but seemed to be unharmed. The debris on the ground was pretty bad, and it was something I was going to have to spend hours cleaning up, but once I knew I escaped the hail damage my priority shifted to attending a big arts festival. Cleanup could wait until later in the afternoon. The weather after the hailstorm was absolutely beautiful, and a perfect day to be outdoors at an art festival. It was a little sad to see that quite a few of the booths/tents that had been set up for the festival had been destroyed in the hailstorm, but for the most part the rest seemed to be okay. Have any of you ever been caught in a hailstorm, or had damage to your vehicle or property as a result of hail?
16 people like this
16 responses
@TheHorse (225375)
• Walnut Creek, California
13 Apr
Microbursts can bring planes down. Glad you're OK.
3 people like this
@wolfgirl569 (114441)
• Marion, Ohio
13 Apr
They are fairly common here. Glad you didn't have any damage
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
I wouldn’t say it’s rare here in Florida, but it’s not common. I can’t even remember the last time it hailed here. How frequently do you get them where you live?
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (114441)
• Marion, Ohio
14 Apr
@moffittjc Not a lot but the severe storms can have hail. Usually they are smaller sized and except for stinging if you get hit, they don't cause any damage. And we get plenty of thunderstorms
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
@wolfgirl569 I think that’s how most of our hailstorms are in Florida. Just tiny ones. But from a lot of the pictures I’ve seen on social media, it looks like these were golf ball sized hail.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (73505)
• United States
14 Apr
I have a couple of dings in my siding from previous hailstorms. I thankfully have a detached garage. In contrast, one of my best friends sent me a photo of his siding after a hailstorm we had here right before the Derby. His siding looked like it had been taken off, run through a paper shredder, then slapped back on his house. And that was a new house. My siding is at least 36 years old (it’s never been replaced since I lived here). I’m very thankful your truck wasn’t damaged.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (73505)
• United States
14 Apr
@moffittjc — thankful the oak trees protected everything and didn’t decide to blow down.
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
I have a metal roof, and I was worried about damage, but I couldn’t tell at first because it was so covered in leaves and branches. But after spending the day cleaning it off yesterday, I saw that there was no damage. Thankfully, like in the case with my truck, the house is well protected under a pretty dense canopy of oak trees.
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (108565)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
14 Apr
I have been blessed that I have never experienced a hailstorm. I have experienced hurricanes, tornadoes and winter storms.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
Well, hailstorms aren’t quite as bad as hurricanes and tornadoes, but they can still do some damage.
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (108565)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
14 Apr
@moffittjc That is true since I have seen the news reports on television and internet.
@andriaperry (118702)
• Anniston, Alabama
14 Apr
Yes many years ago, so many roofs had damage.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
It’s definitely the same here. Lots of damaged homes and vehicles. Fortunately, my heavy tree canopy over my yard protected my roof and truck from damage.
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (118702)
• Anniston, Alabama
14 Apr
@moffittjc whenever we were driving in hail we used to pull over under a tree to save the window.
@LindaOHio (186535)
• United States
14 Apr
I'm glad you didn't have any damage. The hail that we've had is quite small.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
From some of the pictures I’ve seen from friends, this hail was quite large. It really did some damage. How often do you get hail in your area?
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (186535)
• United States
11h
@moffittjc Not very often.
@kareng (72318)
• United States
13 Apr
Glad you had no damage from the hail storm! Those leaves stacked up on your truck probably saved it from some damage too. We have missed all the big (golf ball size) hail they have warned us was possible with all the storms in the last 5 weeks. Knock on wood that we continue to miss them! Glad you enjoyed the arts festival. I'm looking forward to the Homochitto River Festival again this year in the Fall, although we had summer weather and hot temps last year for it.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
As bad as the hail storm was, it brought some beautiful cooler weather with it, so when we went to the arts festival it was not ce and sunny, but chilly. To me, it made for perfect outdoor weather.
1 person likes this
@kareng (72318)
• United States
23h
@moffittjc That was the blessing behind the storm!
@kaylachan (76816)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
13 Apr
I'm glad you got to miss it.
1 person likes this
@kaylachan (76816)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
14 Apr
@moffittjc I don't doubt it. Makes me thankful that we have a strong gerage to put our van.
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
Me too! There are a lot of damaged vehicles here from the hailstones.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (145789)
• United States
13 Apr
Yup! We get a lot of hail when a tornado goes around the city. We lost one of my bedroom windows and one of the garage windows this last fall during a hail storm. I'm glad nothing bad happened at your house and your truck was still safe. Pretty just picked up glass that fell out of the garage window a few days ago when we found the mess.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (145789)
• United States
14 Apr
@moffittjc Two or three times a year but they rarely do damage... Usually they last a minute at most and we have a layer of rapidly melting ice and then the rains come down.
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
You got lucky that you only had a few broken windows! How often do you get hail?
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (83879)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
13 Apr
WOW that was some hail storm. I remember when I still lived in NYC one very hot summer day I was in Manhattan. Suddenly the sky started getting dark and then big balls of hail along with rain came down, Everyone like me found shelter where they could, After it was over the hot sun came back out and we all went slipping and sliding on the melting hail on the sidewalk,
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
That happened to me years ago when I was in college. Everybody was slipping and sliding, including vehicles. They had to bring in bulldozers to clear the hail off the streets.
1 person likes this
@1creekgirl (43306)
• United States
13 Apr
Glad the damage wasn't any worse than it was. We've never had it like that before.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
It’s very rare that we ever get hail, and when we do it’s usually localized to a small area. But this storm was very large and widespread. It was pretty crazy.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (350696)
• Rockingham, Australia
14 Apr
I haven't been affected personally but I've seen evidence of what big hailstones can do.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
I didn’t realize it until I saw photos, but these hailstones were quite large. Very unusual to get such large ones here in my area. Actually, very rare to even get hailstorms at all.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (45964)
• Staten Island, New York
13 Apr
I remember many years ago I was at the beach with my parents and my cousin and it got dark all of a sudden. We thought it was gonna rain hard so we quickly gathered our stuff and ran to the car. When we got inside the car it started to hail and the hail was big.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
That’s crazy! Good thing you made it back to your car in time! Did it do any damage to the vehicle?
@lovebuglena (45964)
• Staten Island, New York
14 Apr
@moffittjc I don’t remember as it was a very long time ago. Hopefully not. I recall as everyone was fleeing the beach one bozo decided to go swimming.
@MarieCoyle (42669)
13 Apr
I am glad you just have debris to clean up, and that your truck is ok. Hail can destroy so many things. If your area got a lot, don’t forget to check your roof. Hail can play havoc on a nice roof and cause lots of leaks!! My Dad was caught in a terrible hailstorm once. The hail was so large, it broke the windshield on the truck. I was just glad he wasn’t hurt.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
I spent most of the day yesterday cleaning debris off the roof of the house. It was a mess, but luckily no damage that I could see. Most of my roof is under the cover of large oak trees, so I think the trees took the brunt of the damage.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (42669)
14 Apr
@moffittjc I am glad to hear there is no damage to be found. I know it's hard to clean up the storm messes from a roof, and I am even happier to know it appears you did not fall off the roof!
@Juliaacv (53031)
• Canada
13 Apr
That sounds like you you got off really really lucky. I cannot recall us ever encountering any damage from hail. We have sustained damages numerous times from high winds. When we lived out in the country the winds were strong, and we lost sections of shingles once, and one time we even had a piece of siding from the gable end (the rest of the house was bricked) fly off and end up in a tree. We had a wood stove chimney pipe which was hit by lightening once, it flew apart as it was in 3 foot sections and went everywhere in the yard and damaged the eavestroughs on its way down.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123647)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Apr
Wow, you’ve had quite a variety of natural phenomenon happen to you! Luckily, nothing too horrible, although getting hit by lightning is never fun.
1 person likes this
@JESSY3236 (20395)
• United States
5h
I haven't been in it, but there was a hailstorm, I think, a few years ago. I had to go to my neighbor's house. Everything was fine though.