Undoubtedly, we’ve had an especially active severe weather season across Texas. It seems like every day a new threat of large hail or a tornado emerges somewhere in the state. That’s not uncommon for the month of May, which is typically the most active month for severe weather in Texas.

But has this month been crazier than normal?

According to the National Weather Service data, yes, it has. The Iowa Environmental Mesonet, which is a part of Iowa State University, has kept a tally of weather service storm reports since 2006. They separate the reports by state, and Texas has experienced record numbers in May 2024.

During this month alone, Texas has 197 storm reports that include hail at least 2 inches in diameter. That’s the highest number of reports of large hail that has ever been logged in a single month. The figure may rise even higher, thanks to severe weather expected Friday. The previous record for a month was 171 reports, which happened in June 2023.

How big exactly is 2-inch hail? To compare, a golf ball is only 1.7 inches in diameter, so we’re talking about especially large, damaging hail.

Increasing the hail size to 3 inches, which is slightly larger than a baseball, produces another record. This month, National Weather Service offices in Texas have reported 3-inch hail 46 times. That’s more than the previous record of 36, also set last June.

The largest hail reported this month in Texas fell on May 9 in the Hill Country. A hailstone was estimated to have been 6.14 inches in diameter, slightly smaller than Texas’ record-holding 6.4-inch hailstone that fell near Hondo in 2021.

Why is this happening?

First of all, the weather pattern over the past several weeks has supported what feels like countless rounds of severe weather. A steady stream of moisture has been moving in from the Gulf of Mexico, and temperatures statewide have been soaring to above-normal levels. The combination of moisture and heat means that the atmosphere has been especially unstable for weeks.

With an unstable atmosphere, we only need minor atmospheric disturbances to trigger strong to severe thunderstorms. Lately, we haven’t been in short supply of those atmospheric disturbances, with a steady stream of low pressure systems, weak cold fronts and stationary fronts lingering across the state almost every day this month.

Social media age

Another factor likely contributing to the record number of reports of large hail this month in Texas is social media. In today’s digitally world, more people have the ability to easily take photos of hail and post them on social media with just a few taps on their smartphone screen.

The National Weather Service can instantly look at many of these photos and confirm whether the reported hail and photos correctly line up with what meteorologists are seeing on radar.

In years past, many reports of large hail reports went unreported or unconfirmed because not as many people had the ability to take weather pictures at their fingertips or had the ability to share those photos instantly.