Hail falls on area early, but worse weather looms for late morning, early afternoon

The first wave of storms to roll through the area Wednesday morning appear to have brought little more than rain and some substantial hail in some parts. But worse weather may be on the horizon, according to WRBL Chief Meteorologist Bob Jeswald about 7 a.m.

A storm system moved in to the area about 5 a.m., dropping hail that looks to be close to ping-pong ball size in some parts. Jeswald posted photos of hail that size reportedly from the Ladonia area. Photos from Columbus show hail ranging from dime- to pea-size hail having fallen.

Jeswald said one WRBL employee’s car had been slightly damaged by large hail on the way to work.

Otherwise, the area saw mostly rain and some wind, but nothing severe.

Jeswald said Wednesday morning’s front was mild compared to what could be looming in a window from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“Everything is setting up, priming for what we were thinking,” Jeswald said. “It’s very unstable. Everything is just coming together right now. What I’m seeing is what I don’t like to see, like the perfect storm kind of thing. The instability starting to lift ahead of the front, basically priming the atmosphere like fuel.”

Jeswald said the system could start rotating, which could produce tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and damaging wind during that period.

Then the last round should move through Wednesday night around 9 or 10 p.m. along a frontal axis, which could produce some spin-off, isolated tornadoes.

Jeswald said after about midnight the area should be our of the woods as far as damaging weather goes. But while Thursday looks like it will be clearing as the day progresses, heavy winds will remain.

“Even though there’s no severe weather, the wind could pose a risk as far as branches and trees that have been weakened,” Jeswald said.

Stay with ledger-enquirer.com for more on today’s weather.

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 7:36 AM with the headline "Hail falls on area early, but worse weather looms for late morning, early afternoon."