Notoriously known as the “white combine,” a strong hailstorm can tear through a field like a large ... [+]
2020 continues to bring surprises, and for many crop farmers this summer, it’s been in the form of hail. Notoriously known as the “white combine,” a strong hailstorm can tear through a field like a large combine and destroy or severely damage a farmer’s crop. Depending on the time of the year and the stage of the plant, it can mean the end of the growing season or substantial yield loss.
Hail is a weather event that tends to be episodic, and the size and coverage of hail varies greatly from storm to storm. Hail forms in a thunderstorm when raindrops in the cloud get caught in strong updrafts, eventually growing to a size where the updraft can no longer support the weight, and they fall to the ground as hailstones. In most thunderstorms, the ice falls through warmer, lower-level air and melt into raindrops. In the High Plains of the U.S. however, where elevations can reach 4,000 feet or more, the atmosphere is thinner and there is not always enough warmth to melt the ice. In the Midwest, hail can also form within large thunderstorms that create a strong collision of sharply contrasting air masses. In those instances, the ice particles can get caught in several cycles of updrafts and downdrafts, all the while collecting moisture and increasing in size, increasing the chances for large hailstones to reach the ground.
As recorded in the National Insurance Crime Bureau Hail Report, the top eight states with the most hail damage between the years 2017 and 2019 are all agricultural powerhouses. These states include Texas with the most damage, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. According to Bryce Anderson, a senior agriculture meteorologist at DTN*, many of these hailstorms occur during seasonal changes due to air mass boundary influence, and they show long narrow swaths of coverage when they occur. “In other words, when they hit, they hit hard,” Anderson explains. A strong hailstorm in mid to late summer can often destroy a crop, with no time to salvage more than a portion of the year’s production on the impacted acreage.
Hailstones can cause major damage to crops at a point during growth when the plants are not yet sturdy or strong enough to withstand the falling ice. On July 11 of this year, a thunderstorm spawned severe weather across an exceptionally long streak in western Minnesota. Hail as large as 2.5 inches in diameter was reported, devastating corn, soybean and sugar-beet crops. Although many crops have been thriving since the early planting season with 21% of Minnesota corn fields silking and 67% of soybeans blooming, this storm still caused significant damage to fields. Mary Kennedy, a basis analyst for DTN*, recently published a blog post and shared some insights from that July storm where industry experts noted the “corn stalks had breakage and bruising from the hailstones themselves.” Soybeans also suffered during that storm, reporting significant damage, and although the soybeans may re-grow, they won’t come close to the yield they were on pace for.
The commodity market has so far shown very little reaction to hailstorm damage. Todd Hultman, DTN lead analyst*, says, “I can't say I have seen any hint of market move related to wind damage or hail concern. While those things might turn up as issues at harvest time, so far I would say they have been ignored by traders.” Anderson goes on to add that there is climate science research under way regarding how future hailstorms are likely to potentially change with our ever-warming climate. The studies are finding that the Western and Northern Plains areas are likely to incur more hailstorms in the future and the prospect of hail damage will continue to be an issue as it only takes one storm to cancel out a year’s worth of crop work and investment.
*DISCLOSURE: This author works for DTN
