Large Hail in Conway and Tabor City on April 7, 2022

Severe thunderstorms with large hail developed across northeastern South Carolina during the afternoon of Thursday, April 7, 2022. Hailstones ranging from ping pong ball to tennis ball in size fell in a number of locations in and around Conway, north across Loris, and into Tabor City, NC.

The largest hail up to the size of baseballs fell between Galivants Ferry and Bayboro where at least one vehicle and a home were damaged.

Horry County is no stranger to large hail. On May 10, 2011, hailstones the size of softballs were reported from two locations in Conway during a severe thunderstorm. On August 28, 2000, baseball size hail fell in the Wampee community of northeastern Horry County.

Can't go over these hail videos. Another one from Aynor via Crystal Bridges. #scwx #ncwx pic.twitter.com/DgxL8ohEiz
— Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) April 7, 2022

Conway via Bridgett Davis #scwx #ncwx pic.twitter.com/KZMbaoLooS
— Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) April 7, 2022

More from today’s hail storm north of Conway that dropped golf ball to tennis balled sized hail. From Emily Williams. #SCwx @wmbfnews @NWSWilmingtonNC pic.twitter.com/1hnJjENjQx
— Jamie Arnold WMBF (@jamiearnoldWMBF) April 8, 2022

Huge hail bigger than golf balls on highway 319 near Conway via Rusty Crocker. #scwx #ncwx pic.twitter.com/sw9cC6y25C
— Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) April 7, 2022

These severe thunderstorms developed within an unseasonably warm and humid airmass for early April. High temperatures inland from the beaches reached the lower 80s with dewpoints approaching 70 degrees. Cool temperatures aloft associated with an upper level disturbance generated significant instability and allowed the storms to grow over 45,000 feet tall where air temperatures were -75° F. Large hail fell in association with the two strongest storms of the day, both of which displayed transient supercellular characteristics on radar. These two cells merged as they crossed the state line, then weakened. Additional large hail fell across northeastern North Carolina with this same weather system later in the evening.

Radar reflectivity and visible satellite animation showing severe thunderstorms during the afternoon of April 7, 2022. Yellow polygons are severe thunderstorm warnings. Lightning strikes are shown in white.

This is what golf ball to baseball size hail did to a home between Loris and Green Sea. Sorry to see this Susan Brown. Thankfully, they were able to pull the car into the carport before the big hail arrived. #scwx #ncwx pic.twitter.com/1hBL200HTK
— Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) April 7, 2022

Wow! Look at this large hailstone captured by Billy Jo Tyler this afternoon in Tabor City. #WECTwx #ILMwx pic.twitter.com/RxSauCgcOB
— Eric R. Davis WECT (@ericdavisWECT) April 8, 2022

While there are multiple methods available to meteorologists to diagnose the occurrence of large hail, one of the more interesting ones is the appearance of a three-body scatter spike on radar. A three-body scatter spike (TBSS) appears as a "spike" of low reflectivity values extending beyond the thunderstorm as viewed from the radar's perspective. This is an artifact of how radar energy interacts with large hail within the storm. In these situations, a portion of the radar's transmitted energy is reflected by the hailstones down to the ground, then back to the hailstones, then is reflected a third time to the radar receiver. The extra distance the radar energy travels during its bounce between the hailstones, the ground, and the hail again, creates the appearance of a spike of reflectivity extending beyond the storm.

The two strongest storms of the day both showed TBSS signatures on radar, helping meteorologists with their determination large hail was going to occur. Lead times between the warning and the occurrence of hail were as much as 40 minutes during this severe weather event, providing significant time to seek safe shelter.

Two thundestorm cells displaying a three body scatter spike over Horry County