SECTION 4: RISK ASSESSMENT
as fire damage ignited by lightning. The highest rate of property damage recorded for a single incident was $1,000,000.
HAIL NCEI records 298 separate hail incidents across 116 days between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2023 in Wake County. Of these, three events were reported to have caused property damage and none caused death, injury or crop damage. The largest diameter hail recorded in the County was 4” in Raleigh on March 28, 2005; the average hail size in all storms was a little over one inch in diameter. Table 4.103 – Summary of Hail Occurrences by Jurisdiction Location Number of Occurrences Average Hail Diameter Apex 21 1.19 ” Cary 19 1.0 2” Fuquay-Varina 15 1.13” Garner 13 1.14” Holly Springs 10 .88 ” Knightdale 7 .96” Morrisville 14 1.12 ” Raleigh 50 1.08 ” Rolesville 6 1.04 ” Wake Forest 9 1.1 1” Wendell 4 .75” Zebulon 4 1.03” Unincorporated Wake County 126 1.12 ”
The following narratives provide detail on select hailstorms from the above list of NCEI recorded events:
June 15, 1998 – Dime size hail fell in north Raleigh. This storm also produced very heavy rain and frequent lightning across much of northern Wake County from near the RDU Airport to Falls Lake and north Raleigh.
July 10, 2003 – Tobacco fields were damaged by large hail.
March 28, 2005 – 3.5 to 4 inch elongated hail reported at I-540 and Falls of Neuse Road. 3 inch hail reported at Strickland and Falls of Neuse Roads. 2 inch hail reported in Five Points. Golf ball sized hail reported at Cameron Village, Atlantic and New Hope Church Roads, North Raleigh Community Hospital, Green and Lee Spring Roads, and Durant and Falls of Neuse Roads. Ping pong ball sized hail reported on Wake Forest Road. Quarter to half dollar sized hail reported on Highwoods Road.
April 15, 2007 – Quarter size hail reported between Angier and Fuquay-Varina.
July 1, 2012 – A lee side surface trough interacted with a very unstable atmosphere and produced clusters of showers and thunderstorms. Some of these storms became severe and produce large hail and damaging winds across all of central North Carolina. September 1, 2017 – The remnants of Harvey increased the southwesterly flow over Central North Carolina as it moved northeastward through Tennessee and Kentucky. In the wake of the northward moving warm front, a cold front moved into and stalled over Central North Carolina providing lift in the strongly sheared, moist environment. The resulting thunderstorms became severe, producing damaging wind gusts, large hail and flash flooding. April 8, 2020 - The combination of warm moist air and the passage of a mid level disturbance from the northwest produced multiple clusters and line segments of strong to severe storms moving across northern
Wake County, NC Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan
WSP June 2024 Page 199
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