SILVER SPRING, Md. — During severe weather that swept through the D.C. area Monday evening, the largest hail ever recorded in Montgomery County was reported in the Rockville area, the National Weather Service says.
The hail registered at 2.75 inches in diameter, or about the size of a baseball.
The previous record in Montgomery County was 2.5 inches, set in 1965.
“Any time you get hail that’s larger than about golf-ball size, you tend to start getting to the point where you’re denting cars,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Strong.
In addition to the baseball-size hail, there were reports during Monday’s storms in various places across the area of hail ranging from pea-size to the size of ping pong balls and tennis balls.
“That’s a pretty exceptional hail size for the metro area,” Strong added.
Residents took photos of hail that fell in their neighborhoods and posted them on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
“Some of the hail was as big as my palm,” said Robin Wiener, of Rockville.
Wiener heard the hail hammering the roof and windows of her home before she rushed outside to get a closer look. She tells WTOP the hail was painful, bouncing up off the ground and hitting her legs.
“I have never seen anything like this before in the Washington, D.C., area,” she explained. “It was just amazing.”
