European Severe Storms Laboratory: About 10,000 reports of large hailstones in 2023, one of which was in the capital, Amman.

Arabia Weather - The European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL) issued statistics indicating that nearly 10,000 reports of large hailstones were received in the year 2023. Most of these reports were concentrated from the countries of the European continent, and some were from the Maghreb and the Levant, and one of them was in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and it hit Hailstones affected at least 328 people, in addition to the heavy material and economic damage.

2023 is the third record-breaking hail season in a row

According to the European Severe Storm Laboratory, 9,823 reports of large hail (more than 2 cm in size) were submitted to the European Severe Weather Database for 2023. Among these reports, there were 1,931 reports of very large hail (more than 5 cm), and 92 reports of Giant hailstones (larger than 10 cm), and all three metrics were the highest ever in the database, making 2023 the third record-breaking cold season in a row, along with the initial numbers of reports. The number of days for each category was Hail size was also a record, with 229 days of large hail, 96 days of very large hail, and 13 days of giant hail.

Also breaking records in terms of maximum hail sizes during 2023

Records have been broken not only in terms of large and very large hail amounts, but also in terms of maximum hail sizes. The largest (photographed) hail record in Europe was broken twice in just 5 days in Italy. On July 19, it was reported 16 cm hailstones, followed by 19 cm Hajj hailstones on July 24, 2023. In both cases, hailstone sizes were estimated using reference objects placed near the hailstones, and the heaviest weighted hailstone officially fell on July 24 with a scale reading of 484 grams.

The diameter of the hailstones was 13 cm, so the largest hailstones observed on July 19 or 24 likely weighed much more. Giant hailstones also fell in other countries such as: Slovenia (the largest hailstone reached 13.8 cm), Bulgaria. (13 cm), Croatia (13 cm), France (11 cm), Spain (11 cm), Bosnia (11 cm), Germany (10 cm) and Russia (10 cm).

One report of large hailstones was from the capital, Amman

According to the European Severe Storms Laboratory, one of the reports that arrived of large hailstones was from the capital, Amman. The Kingdom was affected at the end of May by a strong state of atmospheric instability, as a result of which very thick cumulonimbus clouds formed, resulting in severe thunderstorms, resulting in heavy showers up to Extremely heavy rain with the occurrence of strong thunderstorms and lightning strikes. Among the exceptional weather events taking place in the Kingdom, neighborhoods of the capital, Amman, were exposed that morning to a thunderstorm classified as “strong,” accompanied by heavy hail showers of different sizes. The diameter of the hailstones was at times. Large in size that allowed it to cause serious damage to the bodies and windows of vehicles.

What is the reason for the difference in reporting between 2023 and previous years?

The reason for the relative difference in the number of reports between previous years and 2023 is that networks of cooperative observers have become more efficient in collecting reports. Another reason may be that 2023 witnessed more long-term hail storms that produced large amounts of hail in many areas. Locations: For example, in 2022 there were 5 hailstorms with hail areas exceeding 200 km.

But in 2023, there were 13 such hailstorms, with one long-lived supercell thunderstorm producing a hail zone 686 km long and affecting 5 countries.

France took the lead with the highest number of reports of large hail (1,502 reports), closely followed by Italy with 1,468 reports. However, with regard to the most damaging hail storms, Italy took the lead with 596 reports of very large hail storms, and 67 reports of severe hail storms. Giant hailstones. The third country most affected by large hailstones was Germany, where the number of reports reached 1,270 reports, including 142 reports of very large hailstones.

Societal damage and huge economic costs resulting from large hailstone sizes

The big cold had clear societal and economic effects, as at least 328 people were injured due to the cold, and the real number is likely much higher because mild injuries caused by the cold are not well covered by the media, and most of the injuries (242 people) came from Italy as well. Hail caused massive economic damage, the Munich-RE report stated that Italian hail storms cost billions of dollars, and the Gallagher-RE report put the figure at $3 billion with the total cost of damage from convective storms in Europe at about $12 billion.