The hail may not have been super large; but, as often happens with hail, there sure was a LOT of it! The below photos were taken by various spotters. They were taken from various places around Gainesville. The hail ranged in size mostly from less then pea- to baseball-sized (off the corner of NW 34th and NW 39th). Video from TV-20 on the evening of the storm showed hail which was ankle-deep in one area. On Facebook, some called the hail "huge", while others were not affected at all. One user from Haile Plantation reported "bucketfulls" falling for 15 to 20 minutes leaving hail "an inch or so deep", covering yards. Northwest Tower Road apartment dwellers experienced "quarter-sized" hail which was "1-2 inches deep".

Hailfall usually occurs in a very thin area beneath storms, and tends to leave very slim "streaks" beneath the path of the storms. As a result, some people may experience hail while people right across the street may actually experience none at all. This can be witnessed in radar "Storm Totals" imagery, which usually shows long, thin tracks where the heavy rains and hail fell.

Along I-75, varioius places suffered from power outages but reports indicate that these occurred long before the storms actually began - starting around 1:30 PM. So the outages were apparently unrelated to the storms.

Storms apparently affected us with largely relatively minor damage. The police reported some minor car accidents in the area in front of the Oaks Mall on Newberry Road.

The photo on the right (taken the day after) was taken by Mike Smith of the grill of an A/C Unit located atop a business in the vicinity of NW 11th Place in Gainesville.

This is video taken by Steven Clifford's cellphone of fallen hail located around the 5100 block of NW 39th Avenue. Hail visible ranges in size from grupel to quarter-sized in some places. The video was taken somewhere between 1900 and 1930 Hours EDT.

You Tube videos:

These videos were found on You Tube. Recommend choosing highest resolution when viewing.

The above video was taken by Daniel Blumberg at 7:25pm from NW 53rd Terrace in Gainesville. He experienced pea-to 1/4-inch-sized hail at his location.

The above video was taken at the Boston Market on Newberry Road. Courtesy Royce Jennings.

Watches/Warnings, Storm Reports Issued:

• Related Watches/Warnings Issued -
  View the watches/warnings issued that day.
• Local Storm Reports (LSRJAX) -
  View all the storm reports for that day.

Satellite Imagery:

• GOES 13 - Band 1 - Visible
  (1700-2300 GMT)

RADAR Imagery:

• KJAX Base Reflectivity
  (03/14/2012, 1800-2300 Hrs EDT / 03/14/2012, 2100 Hrs GMT to 03/15/2012, 0200 Hrs GMT)
• KJAX Base (Radial) Velocity
  (03/14/2012, 1800-2300 Hrs EDT / 03/14/2012, 2100 Hrs GMT to 03/15/2012, 0200 Hrs GMT)
• KJAX Storm Relative Velocity
  (03/14/2012, 1800-2300 Hrs EDT / 03/14/2012, 2100 Hrs GMT to 03/15/2012, 0200 Hrs GMT)
• KJAX Enhanced Echo Tops
  (03/14/2012, 1800-2300 Hrs EDT / 03/14/2012, 2100 Hrs GMT to 03/15/2012, 0200 Hrs GMT)
• KJAX 1-Hour Precip
  (03/14/2012, 1800-2300 Hrs EDT / 03/14/2012, 2100 Hrs GMT to 03/15/2012, 0200 Hrs GMT)
• KJAX Storm Total Rainfall Accumulation
  (03/14/2012, 1800-2300 Hrs EDT / 03/14/2012, 2100 Hrs GMT to 03/15/2012, 0200 Hrs GMT)
• KJAX Digital Vertical Integrated Liquid (VIL)
  (03/14/2012, 1800-2300 Hrs EDT / 03/14/2012, 2100 Hrs GMT to 03/15/2012, 0200 Hrs GMT)
• KJAX Storm Tracking
  (03/14/2012, 1800-2300 Hrs EDT / 03/14/2012, 2100 Hrs GMT to 03/15/2012, 0200 Hrs GMT)
• KJAX Storm Structure
  (03/14/2012, 1800-2300 Hrs EDT / 03/14/2012, 2100 Hrs GMT to 03/15/2012, 0200 Hrs GMT)
• KJAX Hail Index
  (03/14/2012, 1800-2300 Hrs EDT / 03/14/2012, 2100 Hrs GMT to 03/15/2012, 0200 Hrs GMT)
• KJAX Mesocyclone Detection
  (No MDA present within the county. Not worth showing.)
• KJAX Tornado Vortex Signature (TVS)
  (No TVS present within the county. Not worth showing.)

You're probably wondering, "What's up with all the huge pixels in the radar imagery? It looks horrible. Bill Quinlan's radar always looks so pretty!"

That's called "smoothing" and it's something you have to watch out for. While it makes things look really cool and all it's actually not very scientific. It's a purely aesthetic process. News agencies tend to make use of it so as to make people think their radar imagery is somehow more "advanced". In fact, the NCDC placed a warning next to the smoothing option in it's software:

"NOTE: The smoothing option must be used with caution. The smoothing algorithm is basic non-scientific pixel smoothing over the resampled image, similar to smoothing photographs. Smoothing can be helpful in making the images visually appealing and allow easier visual detection of features such as hook echos. However, excessive smoothing can eliminate important features in the data and reduce the intensity of small events."

For that reason, we've chosen not to "enhance" any of the radar imagery with smoothing.

(For a quick general description of the various radar products and each of their uses, see NCDC Radar Products.)

Related Newspaper Stories:

• Gainesville Sun - March 14, 2012
  Storm dumps lots of hail on Gainesville
• Gainesville Sun - March 15, 2012
  Hailstorm a calling card of storm season in North Florida

Administrative 'Things To Do':

• Obtain satellite imagery
• Obtain more witness photos/reports