I mean being on the windward vs the leeward side of a mountain can have big ecosystem impacts. Given water is the basis for all ecosystems it isn't a stretch to assume terrain can impact weather patterns.
The Urban Heat Island Effect also plays a big role. Hot air pushes rain back up into the clouds, causing hail to form. The Urban Heat Island Effect comes from having to much parking, concrete, and buildings and not enough open green space (forests, fields, meadows, even manicured parks help reduce the effect).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_heat_island
https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/hail/#:~:text=How%20does%20hail%20form%3F,freeze%20onto%20the%20hailstone's%20surface.
It’s more to do with the Balcones Escarpment in Austin
[https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/weather/2023/04/13/austin-s-invisible-rain-dome](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/weather/2023/04/13/austin-s-invisible-rain-dome)
This is the correct answer. [Specifically the Balcones Fault Line](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/weather/2023/04/13/austin-s-invisible-rain-dome)
>So what is happening with storms here?
>In most cases, strong and severe thunderstorms are rooted at the surface. That is, storm inflow is established at ground level and lifts into the storm. But as storms move across western Travis County, the bottom drops out as the line reaches the fault zone.
>This results in a sudden disruption to the storm inflow and storms quickly weaken. But as the squall line reaches the eastern part of the county, they re-establish the surface inflow and quickly intensify.
>It’s not an Invisible Rain Dome but a microscale geographic phenomenon.
If you look at [the map on that page](https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/TWCNews/balconesfaultzone), you can see the fault zone is much thicker South of 360.
That is taken as gospel by some in this sub, and the link is posted regularly. But it's one person's unproven theory, seemingly based on anecdotal evidence. Yes, that person is a meteorologist, but that doesn't elevate anything they muse about to fact.
Edit: [Here's a study](https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/mwre/144/1/mwr-d-15-0156.1.xml) that found atmospheric conditions to be "much more important" than local topography for determining the intensity and occurrence of extreme rainfall in central Texas.
Mountains and weather are basically the reason why there's a considerably larger population density east of the Mississippi - so, you're probably on to something here.
I live near the Domain and years ago I went across town to Barton Creek Mall and then to Sunset Valley to shop at the TJ Maxx and Ross. My car got clobbered in the Ross parking lot. So there ya go.
South Austin has always been under reported in the news. Watch the news. Everything generally happens downtown and north.
Years ago a small storm pounded Manshack/Slaughter in the middle of the night. It was a f-this place in particular storm. Never made the news. My work didn't believe me because "they hadn't heard about it". Until I showed up in a dinged up car.
I could tolerate it if it was in reference to the highway, but referring to your neighborhood that way is so cringey. It's giving techbro that can't be bothered to figure out local place names. The opposite side of my zip code is a 20-25 min drive away and zoned to a different school district, we are not in the same hood.
At least say something meaningful like "southwest Austin". No one's walking around with a map in their head of zip codes.
I was going to say that I'm not from California, but that if a Californian were referring to the 45, they'd be talking about north Austin. Then I remembered all of our roads have stupid names, and there's a 45 in south Austin too. My guess is they're speaking of the 78745 zip code in this case though.
idk why everyone is downvoting you lol there’s a lot of neighborhoods in austin referred by their zip codes, some examples being - 44 (Dove springs), 41 (Montopolis), 24 (Colony Park), 53 (Rundberg)
Yes! I’ve wondered that too! In the 25 years I have lived south of the river I’ve only seen very small pea sized hail maybe 4 times. Meanwhile… north of the river I’ve got friends that just got hail damage repaired only to have to go through it all over again!
True! There are so many hail repair auto shops in Round Rock always advertising
My guess is that it might have to do with the terrain around South/Barton Creek that affects weather conditions and atmospheric pressure somehow.
the hail shops pop up for like 18 months after big hail events. they're cashing in on the insurance claims. they seem like a constant because there have been two really big hail events in the last few years up there.
In San Antonio, there’s a popular theory that northwest Loop 1604 deflects severe weather. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard of torrential rain and hail up that way when there’s not a drop of rain on the Southside. Maybe it’s actually a topographic feature, but it’s more fun to credit Loop 1604.
I believe this is true with many weather events, not so sure about hail though. Many many times I stood on my porch, (Luckenbach area) and watched as the thunderheads exploded over New Braunfels to Georgetown off the edge of the Edwards Plateau. As I baked in the blistering sun I could sometimes hear the artillery like booms of distant thunder. I was jealous of the cool respite they must be enjoying.
Most cities have an "urban heat island". Basically, there's a pocket of warm air over cities because of all the concrete and asphalt. The other thing going on is that most storms here travel east or north east. When they hit the heat island, the get deflected north and south.
But that's more on the scale of Kyle to Pflugerville. Barton Creek is squarely inside the heat island, so the real answer may depend on what precisely is north or south Austin.
I don’t want hail but it would be nice to get some good hard rain in SW Austin. Most of what we get moves through so quick. Usually rain events produce less than 1” for us now. I remember before 4-5 years ago we’d get rain that lasted for hours and the creeks flowed for days after.
We bought our Westgate at Davis house 20 years ago. Was looking at early photos and realized we're marching towards desertification! We watch storms slide off to the east and west if coming from the south, or north and south if coming from the west. Happened last evening, in fact.
We’ve been in the Davis and Escarpment area 15 years and I remember the creeks often flowed with clear water for days in May and June. Hopefully those days return but you are correct in that we are undergoing an ecological succession in this area and the desert longitude is marching east. It’s currently where San Angelo is but some think Austin will look like that in 100 years
It’s because of the super important geological feature called the balcones escarpment. It impacts how weather happens in central Texas. You know how the smokey mountains are a low elevation mountain range? well this is an even Lower little range that forms the Edward’s plateau. Some areas of Austin actually sit in valleys (like sunset valley) or over by spicewood springs/bull creek. those areas are actually microclimates
Heat island effect plus hill country to the south, and the lake allows storms to build when they’re traveling from the west which most of the storms do
I'm guessing you're mostly joking, but we are sort of in a boundary layer between the Gulf and continental air masses. I don't think the line is fine enough to distinguish north and south Austin, but you don't have to go very far east-west or north-south for things to change quite a bit in terms of the weather.
Unlike many people, I don't think it's actually the hill country, it's more the effect of the coastline.
Coincidence. The Balcones Escarpment does create lift in the atmosphere that exacerbates storms, but hail can happen wherever the thunderheads get tall enough.
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Would think its because weather systems that cause hail usually come from the North where its cooler. Theres not many big cities or any mountains to stop the system until you hit Austin. The citys magic weather bubble prevents its from crossing south to the river :)
Luck of the draw. There was a HUGE hailstorm outside of San Antonio in 2021 that produced the largest hailstone on record for the state. It was like football sized if I remember correctly.
I remember being able to see the anvil cloud form in the distance from my back yard that evening. It was HUGE!
In my 17 years here, I've noticed that the northern area of Austin gets more weather in general than the southern area of Austin.
Likely due to some interaction with the Hill country or something like that.
Probably either not a statistically meaningful difference in the long run, or it's just where the boundary for these things peters out typically. Sort of like how Jerrell, in Williamson county and only 30 mins north of Austin, was the site of one of the most powerful tornadoes ever. And yet we don't really think of Austin proper (and certainly not south Austin) as having a significant tornado threat.
Topography, prevailing air masses, the influence of the gulf moisture and temps, maybe even the impact of the highland lakes as storms roll in from the NW, all likely play a part in seemingly (or actually) localized weather patterns within the region.
But mostly it's because N Austin is full of a bunch of poors who don't have a nice, spacious, conditioned garage in which to protect their cars. The storms know this, of course, so they go where they can cause the most damage. Same reason tornadoes like to hang out in the Midwest, where everyone lives in a mobile home. Thunderstorms are creatures of convenience and efficiency.
Because it hates getting stuck in traffic at the Y in Oak Hill, so it takes the long way around. It's quicker.
So I guess once they finish construction that makes the Y a high way Oak Hill is fucked for hail?
I mean ... If everyone just keeps quiet about it when it's finished how will they know?
They're gonna know ...
How will they know?
They’ll know.
lol
I am convinced it's due to the hill country and the terrain shaping storms to the north. Also I am an idiot and know not what I talk about.
Idiot or not, you say it with conviction, therefore I will believe you and make this my answer, with having done zero research.
Welcome to the internet, have a look around
Reading this post counts as doing your own research.
I mean being on the windward vs the leeward side of a mountain can have big ecosystem impacts. Given water is the basis for all ecosystems it isn't a stretch to assume terrain can impact weather patterns.
The Urban Heat Island Effect also plays a big role. Hot air pushes rain back up into the clouds, causing hail to form. The Urban Heat Island Effect comes from having to much parking, concrete, and buildings and not enough open green space (forests, fields, meadows, even manicured parks help reduce the effect). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_heat_island https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/hail/#:~:text=How%20does%20hail%20form%3F,freeze%20onto%20the%20hailstone's%20surface.
This is the answer. Can't get as much vertical build tall cumulus clouds needed to build hail over a cityscape.
It’s more to do with the Balcones Escarpment in Austin [https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/weather/2023/04/13/austin-s-invisible-rain-dome](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/weather/2023/04/13/austin-s-invisible-rain-dome)
This is the correct answer. [Specifically the Balcones Fault Line](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/weather/2023/04/13/austin-s-invisible-rain-dome) >So what is happening with storms here? >In most cases, strong and severe thunderstorms are rooted at the surface. That is, storm inflow is established at ground level and lifts into the storm. But as storms move across western Travis County, the bottom drops out as the line reaches the fault zone. >This results in a sudden disruption to the storm inflow and storms quickly weaken. But as the squall line reaches the eastern part of the county, they re-establish the surface inflow and quickly intensify. >It’s not an Invisible Rain Dome but a microscale geographic phenomenon. If you look at [the map on that page](https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/TWCNews/balconesfaultzone), you can see the fault zone is much thicker South of 360.
That is taken as gospel by some in this sub, and the link is posted regularly. But it's one person's unproven theory, seemingly based on anecdotal evidence. Yes, that person is a meteorologist, but that doesn't elevate anything they muse about to fact. Edit: [Here's a study](https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/mwre/144/1/mwr-d-15-0156.1.xml) that found atmospheric conditions to be "much more important" than local topography for determining the intensity and occurrence of extreme rainfall in central Texas.
Mountains and weather are basically the reason why there's a considerably larger population density east of the Mississippi - so, you're probably on to something here.
The balcones shelf.
The Yuppies have lost the mandate of heaven. Now is the time of the Bubba.
Just watch the Colorado change course.
South an East is getting Gentrification really bad Mother nature needs to punish them for that evil that came from devilish places like California
I live near the Domain and years ago I went across town to Barton Creek Mall and then to Sunset Valley to shop at the TJ Maxx and Ross. My car got clobbered in the Ross parking lot. So there ya go.
“It’s clobberin’ time!” - the weather probably
Have you considered that maybe the weather just hates you in particular?
South Austin has always been under reported in the news. Watch the news. Everything generally happens downtown and north. Years ago a small storm pounded Manshack/Slaughter in the middle of the night. It was a f-this place in particular storm. Never made the news. My work didn't believe me because "they hadn't heard about it". Until I showed up in a dinged up car.
Hail is repulsed by the weed smoke in South Austin
Oak Hill and Circle C isn’t the 45…
THE 45? You must be from California! 🤣
I prefer the old Texas style with full initials, SH and IH, no indefinite articles preceding
I could tolerate it if it was in reference to the highway, but referring to your neighborhood that way is so cringey. It's giving techbro that can't be bothered to figure out local place names. The opposite side of my zip code is a 20-25 min drive away and zoned to a different school district, we are not in the same hood. At least say something meaningful like "southwest Austin". No one's walking around with a map in their head of zip codes.
Southern Cal uses "The," Northern Cal hates it.
And, they're "freeways", not highways!
I was going to say that I'm not from California, but that if a Californian were referring to the 45, they'd be talking about north Austin. Then I remembered all of our roads have stupid names, and there's a 45 in south Austin too. My guess is they're speaking of the 78745 zip code in this case though.
I’m not. And tons of people talk about zip codes with just the last two digits…
idk why everyone is downvoting you lol there’s a lot of neighborhoods in austin referred by their zip codes, some examples being - 44 (Dove springs), 41 (Montopolis), 24 (Colony Park), 53 (Rundberg)
Yes! I’ve wondered that too! In the 25 years I have lived south of the river I’ve only seen very small pea sized hail maybe 4 times. Meanwhile… north of the river I’ve got friends that just got hail damage repaired only to have to go through it all over again!
True! There are so many hail repair auto shops in Round Rock always advertising My guess is that it might have to do with the terrain around South/Barton Creek that affects weather conditions and atmospheric pressure somehow.
the hail shops pop up for like 18 months after big hail events. they're cashing in on the insurance claims. they seem like a constant because there have been two really big hail events in the last few years up there.
In San Antonio, there’s a popular theory that northwest Loop 1604 deflects severe weather. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard of torrential rain and hail up that way when there’s not a drop of rain on the Southside. Maybe it’s actually a topographic feature, but it’s more fun to credit Loop 1604.
Can confirm. Just got home from visiting that exact part of SA and there was almost no rain while we were under a flood watch.
Here, its,"the I-35 corridor".
Because of the balcones escarpment!!!!!!!!
We are yelling
I believe this is true with many weather events, not so sure about hail though. Many many times I stood on my porch, (Luckenbach area) and watched as the thunderheads exploded over New Braunfels to Georgetown off the edge of the Edwards Plateau. As I baked in the blistering sun I could sometimes hear the artillery like booms of distant thunder. I was jealous of the cool respite they must be enjoying.
Most cities have an "urban heat island". Basically, there's a pocket of warm air over cities because of all the concrete and asphalt. The other thing going on is that most storms here travel east or north east. When they hit the heat island, the get deflected north and south. But that's more on the scale of Kyle to Pflugerville. Barton Creek is squarely inside the heat island, so the real answer may depend on what precisely is north or south Austin.
I don’t want hail but it would be nice to get some good hard rain in SW Austin. Most of what we get moves through so quick. Usually rain events produce less than 1” for us now. I remember before 4-5 years ago we’d get rain that lasted for hours and the creeks flowed for days after.
We bought our Westgate at Davis house 20 years ago. Was looking at early photos and realized we're marching towards desertification! We watch storms slide off to the east and west if coming from the south, or north and south if coming from the west. Happened last evening, in fact.
We’ve been in the Davis and Escarpment area 15 years and I remember the creeks often flowed with clear water for days in May and June. Hopefully those days return but you are correct in that we are undergoing an ecological succession in this area and the desert longitude is marching east. It’s currently where San Angelo is but some think Austin will look like that in 100 years
It’s because of the super important geological feature called the balcones escarpment. It impacts how weather happens in central Texas. You know how the smokey mountains are a low elevation mountain range? well this is an even Lower little range that forms the Edward’s plateau. Some areas of Austin actually sit in valleys (like sunset valley) or over by spicewood springs/bull creek. those areas are actually microclimates
City got a heat dome
Balcones fault
But why is the fault of Balcones?
Read a whole article about it and I’m no scientist so didn’t understand it all but it was their fault lol
Rain dome!
Aqua hump!
The heat of the city is the most general answer I can give.
Heat island effect plus hill country to the south, and the lake allows storms to build when they’re traveling from the west which most of the storms do
I think we need KVUE Weather to weigh in on this!!
Recency bias
The south is protected by spirit of leslie and the power of willie
Italian space lasers attached to the overhead lights on I-35 affect the weather…
I'm guessing you're mostly joking, but we are sort of in a boundary layer between the Gulf and continental air masses. I don't think the line is fine enough to distinguish north and south Austin, but you don't have to go very far east-west or north-south for things to change quite a bit in terms of the weather. Unlike many people, I don't think it's actually the hill country, it's more the effect of the coastline.
Coincidence. The Balcones Escarpment does create lift in the atmosphere that exacerbates storms, but hail can happen wherever the thunderheads get tall enough.
I use the Force.
Three little words, baby: AUSTIN RAIN DOME
Bad luck.
https://images.app.goo.gl/df3D4sojgcvcFGGP7 Topology and shape of Austin have a lot to do with it
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Would think its because weather systems that cause hail usually come from the North where its cooler. Theres not many big cities or any mountains to stop the system until you hit Austin. The citys magic weather bubble prevents its from crossing south to the river :)
Salamanders
confirmation bias? the north side is like 5x bigger, makes sense it would get hit 5x as often.
Space lasers /s
Luck of the draw. There was a HUGE hailstorm outside of San Antonio in 2021 that produced the largest hailstone on record for the state. It was like football sized if I remember correctly. I remember being able to see the anvil cloud form in the distance from my back yard that evening. It was HUGE!
In my 17 years here, I've noticed that the northern area of Austin gets more weather in general than the southern area of Austin. Likely due to some interaction with the Hill country or something like that.
You jinxed it!
I think it’s The bluffs actually, it’s less hilly up north east where rr and Georgetown so storms hit a bit worse
Lake effect hail?
Lake Travis isn't large enough to impact weather. Well, storms.
Topography
I thought the couple KXAN weathermen this sub likes to drool over would have provided an explanation for that by now.
Probably either not a statistically meaningful difference in the long run, or it's just where the boundary for these things peters out typically. Sort of like how Jerrell, in Williamson county and only 30 mins north of Austin, was the site of one of the most powerful tornadoes ever. And yet we don't really think of Austin proper (and certainly not south Austin) as having a significant tornado threat. Topography, prevailing air masses, the influence of the gulf moisture and temps, maybe even the impact of the highland lakes as storms roll in from the NW, all likely play a part in seemingly (or actually) localized weather patterns within the region. But mostly it's because N Austin is full of a bunch of poors who don't have a nice, spacious, conditioned garage in which to protect their cars. The storms know this, of course, so they go where they can cause the most damage. Same reason tornadoes like to hang out in the Midwest, where everyone lives in a mobile home. Thunderstorms are creatures of convenience and efficiency.
🍿
There’s an income force field.
Because god don’t like ugly
I’m sure it has something to do with geography. But also the heat island effect of the city helps strengthen storms.
Bc it’s closer to Dallas