A case study on severe hailstorm on 27 July 2019 in the province of Styria, Austria

<p>A severe hailstorm activity on 27<sup>th</sup> July 2019 created significant damage to crops in the province of Styria, Austria. The hail reports from ESWD (European Severe Weather Database) shows with maximum diameter up to 8 cm was noticed in the vicinity of the storm occurred. Total 1040 crop damage reports were claimed from the Austrian Hail Insurance System due to this severe hailstorm event. A close inspection and understanding features of severe hailstorms is helpful for hail risk assessment. The present study investigates the associated synoptic weather conditions and life cycle of the thunderstorm, and its dynamics. Further analysis carried about hail detection methods and crop hail damage assessment based remote sending and crowdsourcing data. The spatial distribution and temporal development of severe thunderstorms details extracted from radar data. The 3D radar data and storm cell tracking software used to capture the thunderstorm life cycle from the beginning to the dissipating stage. Radar-derived parameters collected for each storm cells, i.e. Duration of the storm cell, volume and area the storm cell, the cloud top height and the maximum reflectivity. Hail detection algorithms (Waldvogel and Auer) used to identify hail event period. The spatial distribution total hail kinetic energy maps prepared to capture the swath and intensity of the hail storms to classify possible crop-hail damaged areas. Hail observational data from ESWD (European Severe Weather Database) and HeDi (Hail event Data interface) and crop damage reports from the Austrian Hail Insurance System are utilised as a ground truth information.  An event-based severe hailstorm analysis help to find proper risk transfer solutions for loss adjustment.</p>