Areas of Johnson County, most especially western Shawnee, were hit with damaging hail during a severe thunderstorm on Wednesday evening.
Starting at about 7:30 p.m. that night, a storm delivered hail that was up to the three inches in diameter reported in areas including Shawnee, Edwardsville and Bonner Springs, according to the National Weather Service in Kansas City, damaging vehicles and property.
Some areas of Kansas and Missouri saw instances of massive 4-inch “gorilla hail,” while baseball-sized hail caused traffic to slow down and even stop on major highways, including Interstate 70.
“We saw videos of slowdowns or even complete stops on major freeways across the metro,” said Chad Shafer, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Kansas City. “For hail to do that is pretty unusual.”
The storm was ‘extremely unusual’
While hail isn’t unusual this time of year, the size of it was, said Shafer.
“Before [Wednesday] night, we had eight total reports in the Kansas City metro area, from 1950 to yesterday, three inches in diameter or larger. So it’s extremely unusual,” he said.
Shafer said National Weather Service normally measures hail in diameter relative to several types of balls to give people a clear idea of their size, including golf balls (1.75 inches in diameter), tennis balls (2.5 inches) and baseballs (2.75 inches).
Users on social media site X posted pictures of hail that had fallen in and around Shawnee that were easily equal to or bigger than golf balls.
Hail in Shawnee KS@glezak pic.twitter.com/ZJBBZHExtB
— TL (@thlindsey) March 14, 2024
Some of the many sizes of hail in our western Shawnee neighborhood likely breaking my skylight. pic.twitter.com/Z580LinAs3
— Russell Knight (@RussKnight_Ag) March 14, 2024
Wednesday’s weather created the perfect conditions for hail
The conditions were a perfect mix to create such massive hail, Shafer said.
It included:
- Cold air in the atmosphere
- Unseasonably warm conditions
- Lots of verticle wind shear, or a change in wind speed as you go from the ground surface to higher up in the atmosphere
“So the thunderstorms, once they developed, had an environment that allowed them to intensify rapidly,” Shafer said. “And it was the combination of those conditions, the vertical wind shear and the unusually strong instability that allowed that to happen.”
Western Shawnee near K7. Crazy! pic.twitter.com/dpoaZKTIAk
— Eric Long (@elong35) March 14, 2024
Insurance companies were busy with claims
Ashley Battles, an agent in Johnson County with SolutionPoint Insurance, said he was busy Thursday with complaints and claims from his customers.
“Most of the people that have (claims), I think their roofs are beat up pretty good or they think they are anyway and they most likely are,” he said. “So that’s the number one claim that we’ve been dealing with is home-related claims.”
An insurance agent since 1997, Battles said Wednesday’s storm was one that he won’t forget.
“Storms like this you remember,” he said. “Ten years from now, I know I’m going to probably look back on this one and say, ‘Oh, you mean the March 13, 2024 (storm)?’ That’s just the kind that this was.”
People dealing with storm damage should avoid scams
When dealing with a claim or repairs, Battles suggests people get their cases going with their insurance as soon as they can.
“Get in line fast,” he said, “Because there’s gonna be a lot of a lot of claims and a lot of roofs going up.”
If the hail damaged the house, Battles asks people to make sure they deal with a roofer or house repair company that’s local and trustworthy.
“Go to a local roofer that you trust, and that your insurance company has worked with before and can trust,” he said. “There are instances where some of the storm chasers (roofing companies) come through, they put the roofs up and then they sail on out to the next one and in Oklahoma or the middle of Missouri or somewhere else and when something goes wrong with their repair job, they’re nowhere to be found.”
The Johnson County District Attorney’s Office also warned residents to be wary of potential scammers in the wake of the storm. Always ask contractors to produce proof of registration and other licenses. If they cannot, the DA’s office said, you should not hire them.
Residents can contact the Johnson County District Attorney’s Consumer Hotline at 913- 715-3003 with questions or to report scams in the area.
