Storms bring baseball-size hail, at least one tornado to South and Central Texas

At least one Tornado touched down in Gillespie County and Del Rio was battered by baseball-size hail, but San Antonio was spared any severe weather Easter Sunday.

Brett Williams, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the tornado was confirmed via radar at about 4:45 a.m. just southeast of Willow City, about 85 miles north of San Antonio.

“We were able to see from radar data what would be debris,” Williams said about detecting the vortex. “We haven’t actually been out and surveyed … but judging by radar, we can say it was a tornado.”

An area just north of Round Mountain off of U.S. 281 looks to have also been hit by a tornado, the meteorologist said, but it had not been officially confirmed as of Sunday morning.

“Basically, it’s still daybreak and we expect to get more damage reports as we hit daylight,” Williams said.

He noted that meteorologists were working out how to survey the area in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and because today is a holiday.

Saturday night, a storm moved through Del Rio east to Brackettville, pelting the area with softball-size hail, the weather service said.

The storm died by the time it got to Medina County, but not before dropping 2 inches of rain in Uvalde. San Antonio got some sprinkles.

For the remainder of Easter Sunday, San Antonio will see high temperatures in the low 80s, with winds of up to 20 miles per hour starting at around 10 a.m.

Williams said there could be wind gusts of up to 30 miles per hour.

“It’s a precursor to what’s expected today and tonight … as far as significant severe weather in the Southeastern U.S.,” he said. “We’re done, we’re in the clear.”

A cold front is expected to move through the region this evening that will drop temperatures to a high of about 68 degrees Monday, with low temperatures in the upper 40 degrees.

“It will be fairly warm today, but then much cooler than normal for high temperatures Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” Williams said. “We’re heading into a cooler period.”

Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Jacob, become a subscriber. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA