North Texas Daily

By Sean Gorman / Sports Editor –

After experiencing sunny skies and temperatures above 90 degrees for most of the day, UNT students received a curveball from Mother Nature in the form of sporadic hail flurries Tuesday afternoon.

Golf ball-sized hail as wide as 1.75 inches fell throughout Denton between 4:01 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. as part of a rainstorm that hit the area.

“We initially issued a severe thunderstorm warning at 3:37 p.m., and the storm grew faster than we expected,” said Steve Fano of the National Weather Service. “Typically we use coins as reference points for hail sizes, but this hail was too big for that.”

The storm moved southeast towards Lewisville and Flowermound after passing through Denton, according to the National Weather Service.

A tornado watch was issued for Denton County during the storm, but no severe chance of it happening exists, Fano said.

“The cooler temperatures that Denton will receive the rest of this week prevents any real chance of a tornado happening,” Fano said.

Political science freshman Rika Fenk said she missed the Tuesday hail, but came across it over the weekend.

“My friends and I were driving back from Victory Hall when it happened. It was pretty scary,” she said. “We were outside in my friend’s Mustang, so he was really freaked out about it getting damaged.”

Seeing pellets of ice fall from the sky was a first for business junior Greg Fullerton, who said he was at his apartment when it hailed for about 20 minutes.

“I just moved to Denton from Houston, and that’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like it,” he said. “It wasn’t too dangerous, but a lot of the cars were getting hit.”

Denton can expect more rain and thunderstorms for the rest of the week, Fano said.

A lack of precipitation has plagued the North Texas region, as it has been 3 to 6 inches below average in rainfall for the last six months, according to the National Weather Service.

“The drought is a long-term phenomena, Fano said. “I expect us to have a normal amount of rain the next three months but still be behind overall.”