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© Norman LucasA hole in Norman Lucas' roof caused by baseball sized hail.
"This is Mini-Ice-Age/Wild Jet Stream Age stuff," says astrophysicist Piers Corbyn.

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"The news about damage caused by very large hail keeps popping up on the Internet," says reader Argiris Diamantis. "People are hiding in their basements because of the giant hail stones."

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Hailstones as big as softballs

Three people sustained head injuries on Saturday afternoon near a lake west of Bismarck, North Dakota after a severe storm dropped hailstones as large as softballs.

Hailstones of this size can be fatal. Luckily, it's been 14 years since the last known fatality directly caused by hail in the United States.

A hailstone slightly larger than a baseball can fall at a rate of more than 100 MPH according to NOAA, so it's a surprising fact that more people aren't injured or killed by hailstorms more often.

Hail Seriously Injures Three in North Dakota

Baseball-sized hail pummels couple's home in Imperial, Sask.

Norman and Becky Lucas' roof was punctured by baseball-sized hail during Saturday's storm

"What started as pea-sized drops pecking at the ceiling soon grew into baseballs crashing through the roof and denting the yard like giant ice meteors.

Dozens of holes pepper the couple's roof and siding. Norman says some of the holes are the size of his head. They still have some of the perpetrators stored in their freezer.

Beyond the house, their truck's sunroof and barn's skylight are smashed, the bar-b-que is a dented piece of metal, and leaves and tree branches lay scattered about the property. Their once fairly flat property is now speckled with four inch dents.

Baseball-sized hail pummels couple's home in Imperial, Sask.

Crooked Lake pounded by golf ball-sized hail

"It started out with winds and rain and then it really picked up."... "We got hail - bigger than golf balls...." The storm left behind a large amount of damage.

Crooked Lake pounded by hail, rain, high winds

Hail in Switzerland.

Several short videos:

Hail in Spain, July second:

Report here.

France - July 6th, grape industry has great losses

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In some areas, hail damaged 80 to 100 percent of the grape crops

France - Hail damages roofs, fells trees

Report here.

Switzerland - A man complains his tomatoes are all gone

Story here.

Videos from the yesterday hail in Le Parisien:

Report here.

Damage to the grape wine plants:

Report here.

Switzerland - A lot of damage to the grape industry

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Here.

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Thanks to Argiris Diamantis for these links.