Hailstorm Whitens Parts Of Napa, USA

Central Napa was hit with an intense hailstorm Tuesday morning that whitened the landscape and created moments of awe.

“It was just coming down mountains. The whole ground was covered,” said Raymond Burch, 63, about the icy deluge that started a little after 10:30 a.m.

Many customers outside Peet’s Coffee & Tea at Bel Air Plaza stood under an awning, waiting for the hail storm to easy up, Burch said.  “Weird weather,” he said.

“It was huge,” said Chris Craiker, whose pathway at his Browns Valley received a mantle of white.

At peak accumulation, the depth of the fallen hail measured nearly an inch, Craiker estimated. “It looked like a snowy winter scene,” he said.

Fortunately, this was pea-size hail that didn’t do any damage to his car, Craiker said. But one of his employees reported the occasional chunk the size of a golf ball, he said.

More bouts of hail remained possible the rest of the day Tuesday because of a front sweeping in from the northwest with high-altitude clouds, said Julie Gondzar, a meteorologist with DayWeather Inc.

Since Monday morning, some Napa County locations, such as Mount Veeder and Petrified Forest outside Calistoga, have received as much as 1.5 inches of rain. Totals around the city of Napa on the valley floor were closer to one inch.

Showers should decrease as the week wears on, with the weekend temperatures expected to be in the 70s, said Gondzar. There is a chance of more rain at the end of next week, she said.

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