Ahead of storm, KC weatherman introduces new way to measure hail: Potato-sized
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KCTV5 meteorologist Luke Dorris warned on social media of 'tornadoes & potato-sized hail'.
- Officials said large hail will be the biggest threat with first round of storms Friday.
- Dorris said softball hail hit 45 minutes south of KC recently and potential remains high.
If you live in the Midwest, you know how to size up hail. Small as peas. Big as softballs.
But ... potato-sized?
What the hail?
Ahead of strong to severe storms predicted to hit the Kansas City area Friday, Kansas City TV meteorologist Luke Dorris warned his social media followers of the possibility of “tornadoes & potato-sized hail.”
As storms, expected to develop as early as 1 to 2 p.m. on Friday, spread quickly throughout the region, large hail will be the biggest threat with the first round, weather officials said.
In the name of weather awareness, Dorris, who works for KCTV5, has been encouraging people lately to “get on the ice potato bandwagon.”
His Friday forecast on X (unsurprisingly) unleashed a round of spud puns, and a bit of debate.
“Russet, Yukon Gold?” one of his X followers demanded to know.
“French fried,” Dorris replied.
“What kind of potato? Idaho? Or garden grown? Maybe sweet potato? Why not yam?”
“Frozen sky taters,” Dorris insisted.
Here’s how he explained/argued for his new category of frozen precipitation.
For reference, he compared the size of a regulation softball — roughly 3.8 inches in diameter — to the typical 2- to 3-inch diameter of a standard baking potato.
“Today’s atmosphere is capable of producing 4” hail in narrow swaths in strongest cells.
“The descriptor for this is usually ‘softball.’
“Softballs are uniform in size/shape. Hail is not. Potatoes are not.”
“Potatoes are smaller than softballs, so it’s less hype-y.”
“It gets the people talking. Awareness: raised.”
“Potatoes are a superior descriptor.”
The idea might not be as half-baked as some people think.
(One person questioned the weatherman’s credentials. The St. Louis native received his bachelor of science in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma.)
Because measuring hailstones during a storm can be tough, visual comparisons are used in reporting, according to the National Weather Service.
That’s why household items are used to eyeball hail diameter — peas, mothballs, peanuts, USB plugs, coins, ping-pong and golf balls, eggs, limes, apples, grapefruits.
Hail must be at least 1 inch in diameter — quarter-sized — across the widest part of the hailstone to be classified as severe. That’s the size of hail that begins to damage property and vegetation.
Some of Dorris’ followers were skeptical of using potatoes as a measuring stick because spud size is variable. A fingerling is not a big ol’ baking potato.
“Potatoes? Could you possibly think of anything that has more size fluctuations than a potato? You could have just said ‘any and all fruit sized hail.’” one wrote on X.
Another joked that “Americans will use anything except the metric system.”
In the third of three posts on X ahead of Friday’s storm, Dorris responded to one critic who roasted him for writing a “fear-forcing post.”
He basically said: “I yam what I yam.”
Dorris reminded people that “two days ago, hail the size of softballs was busting out car windows and shredding siding on homes 45 minutes south of KC.
“The atmosphere today has an even higher ceiling to produce hail ... look, I don’t know if we’ll see huge hail… but it’s on the table. Do with that info what you want.
“And btw, softballs are larger than potatoes. Go see which one you can consistently wrap your fingers around.”
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