OT: Everything is bigger in Texas...

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  • lazlo
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2006
    • 15631

    OT: Everything is bigger in Texas...

    MickeyD mentioned the hail storm we had yesterday afternoon in Austin.

    I was still at work, and the hail storm arrived about 10 minutes after I shot Mike an email about a tornado warning for North East Austin. No good deed goes unpunished...

    As I'm heading home, in rush hour traffic, I got stuck in the hail storm from Hell -- softball sized hail. Seriously.
    The sound was deafening.

    My rear windshield looks like someone strafed it with a machine gun. In other words, the hail went clear through the windshield. I started getting worried when I was being showered with broken glass from the windshields...



    Every single body panel looks like an angry woman went at it with a baseball bat. The hail sheared off both my rear view mirrors, and also shattered my front windshield, and the rear light shields.



    As usual with Texas hailstorms, it was bright and sunny 30 minutes later. And the storm was localized -- at my house, and Mike's house, the hail was only pea or marble sized. Go figure.
    "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did."
  • Willy
    Senior Member
    • Oct 2005
    • 8989

    #2
    Pretty scary stuff Lazlo, I can't imagine hail that size here. Was anybody hurt that got caught outside?
    Before my brother moved to Albuquerque he lived in Denver and would get the odd big one like that. I remember one big hail storm totaled his new car and the roof on his new house. He said everyone in Denver gets a new roof about every ten years.
    Somehow the snow on the ground doesn't seem so bad. The beer's still cold and no bugs!
    Home, down in the valley behind the Red Angus
    Bad Decisions Make Good Stories​

    Location: British Columbia

    Comment

    • Willy
      Senior Member
      • Oct 2005
      • 8989

      #3
      PS: Looks like you'll have some raking to do as well.
      How did the house make out?

      Edited to add: oops!, just read the last line to your post Lazlo
      Last edited by Willy; 03-26-2009, 10:01 AM.
      Home, down in the valley behind the Red Angus
      Bad Decisions Make Good Stories​

      Location: British Columbia

      Comment

      • Evan
        Senior Member
        • May 2003
        • 41977

        #4
        We have had hail up to golf ball size here but not for a long time. In one such storm I was very concerned about my canoe so I put on a hard hat and ran out to turn it pointing straight up leaning against the deck railing. It survived but it was pretty scary going outside in the storm.
        Free software for calculating bolt circles and similar: Click Here

        Comment

        • digger_doug
          Senior Member
          • Sep 2005
          • 294

          #5
          25 years ago we had a tornado, as a ham (and a member of skywarn)
          it was my job to drive to the local weather office to report in
          to the N.O.A.A. guy's, what the local hams were seeing in the field.

          The hail was only dime size, but dang-it, falling from way up there,
          it hurts when running from the car to the office.


          And yes I thought my windshield was going to break, it was that loud.

          And in the middle of all of this, I parked in the wrong spot, and
          was towed....

          Comment

          • jkilroy
            Senior Member
            • Oct 2001
            • 1494

            #6
            I had a brand new Toyota Fourrunner just about totaled by a hail storm in Jackson MS back in the early 90's. The parking lot at my office was about 6" deep in golf ball sized, and large, hail stones. Wasn't a car in the lot, over 200, without lots of damage, many broken windows, side view mirrors knocked off, sun roofs busted. There was one convertible that was just about full to the top of the doors, quite an experience.
            James Kilroy

            Comment

            • daryl bane
              Senior Member
              • Jan 2003
              • 466

              #7
              We had one of those here in Dallas and few years ago. That was the first time I've ever seen softball sizes hailstones. I put a few in the freezer for grins. Took em to a party where there were alot of foreigners, alot of jaw dropping. Many said they always thought it was a typical Texan "tall tale".

              Comment

              • hardtail
                Senior Member
                • Jun 2005
                • 1079

                #8
                Sorry bought your misfortune, we up here tend think of ourselves as the Canadian texans, oil, beef and everything is big but I'm glad we don't see hail that size.....although a couple summers ago Fort Mac got a storm that sounds similar, wrecked the vinyl siding on the houses where the soffits didn't protect, cars similar, I'll have to poke around and see if I can't find some pics.......

                Last edited by hardtail; 03-26-2009, 10:47 AM.
                Opportunity knocks once, temptation leans on the doorbell.....

                Comment

                • lazlo
                  Senior Member
                  • Jun 2006
                  • 15631

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Willy
                  Pretty scary stuff Lazlo, I can't imagine hail that size here. Was anybody hurt that got caught outside?
                  I don't know -- the road where I was stuck is a popular spot for joggers/strollers, and if anyone was hit by one of those giant hailstones (with enough force to punch a hole through a windshield or crater the corner of the A-Frame), I doubt they would have survived.

                  The really scary part is that there are two child sets in the back where those hailstones went through…

                  By the way, here's a picture that one of my co-workers took. There was a lot bigger hail, but you get the idea:

                  "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did."

                  Comment

                  • lynnl
                    Senior Member
                    • Jan 2002
                    • 7181

                    #10
                    Funny, or peculiar, thing about hail and hail damage: While in general or course the larger the hail the greater the damage. But the hail structure itself can vary greatly. Sometimes it'll have a relatively soft, mushy outer cushioning layer, while in other cases tho smaller it'll have a harder outer layer to inflict more damage (and pain).
                    And too, the downrush wind speed plays a big factor.

                    Looks like you lucked out and got the worst of all factors Lazlo.

                    I had always thought the south was more prone to hailstorms, until I lived in Colorado Springs for a couple of years, and learned different. Eastern Colo. and W KS and Neb tend to get more hail from the summer thunderstorns than anywhere else in the country.
                    Lynn (Huntsville, AL)

                    Comment

                    • lazlo
                      Senior Member
                      • Jun 2006
                      • 15631

                      #11
                      Originally posted by lynnl
                      And too, the downrush wind speed plays a big factor.
                      You know, that actually explains one thing I noticed yesterday: some of the hail seemed like it was just falling, but others were hitting my car so hard it sounded like it was coming out of a canon.
                      This hailstorm was the result of a tornado warning for North East Austin, so I'm guessing it was a partially formed tornado that was whipping these things around with hellacious centrifugal force...

                      My daughter is almost 6 and has never seen snow, so she was gleefully collecting giant hailstones, bagging them, and putting them in the freezer. So I have evidence for the insurance adjusters
                      "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did."

                      Comment

                      • aostling
                        Senior Member
                        • Feb 2006
                        • 3997

                        #12
                        Originally posted by lazlo
                        No good deed goes unpunished...
                        Lazlo,

                        That is sockdolager hail, even by Texas standards. I forwarded this to friends in Norway and New Zealand, where your photos will be viewed with awe.
                        Allan Ostling

                        Phoenix, Arizona

                        Comment

                        • MickeyD
                          Senior Member
                          • Jun 2004
                          • 934

                          #13
                          The girls were in the back seat of my truck when I was in it. When it started it was coming from behind and slamming into the back window and roof - sounded almost like gunshots. I turned off the road and around to protect the back windows and then I saw how big it was when it was hitting the hood and windshield. I spoke with State Farm this morning and they said that they are bringing in a bunch of crews to help handle the claims - our agent figures he will be working 12/7's for the next month or two between all of the auto and roof claims that are coming in. But at least it is not earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, or mudslides... hail just pisses you off but those things will kill you.

                          Comment

                          • lynnl
                            Senior Member
                            • Jan 2002
                            • 7181

                            #14
                            The structure of a thunderstorm is exactly like honeycomb. They consist of numerous "cell", some of which at any point in time are updrafts (more prevalent in the early life cycle), some are downdrafts (more prevalent at the end of the t'stm's life). That's how the hailstones form, and is the reason they consist of concentric shells of ice, formed by the alternating freezing and thawing of layers of water as it passes up and down thru the freezing level numerous times. ...maybe for a period of 30 min, maybe an hour or so, who knows.

                            Considering the top of the T'stm flattens out because it's encountered the temp inversion at the tropopause (roughly 40 - 45k ft in spring and summer in the south), where the temp is on the order of -30 or 40 C, a lot of freezing can occur.

                            It's not uncommon for hail to get tossed out of the cloud at a high level and fail in clear air. That's a reason aircraft at altitude are well advised to give T'stms a wide berth (3 miles or more).

                            I'm sure many already knew this, but thought I'd repeat for any who didn't.
                            Lynn (Huntsville, AL)

                            Comment

                            • Fasttrack
                              Senior Member
                              • Jul 2005
                              • 6300

                              #15
                              Man that is just amazing. I've heard stories of hail like that (my Aunt and Uncle live in Oklahoma and seem to get alot of hail storms) but I just can't picture something that size dropping out of the sky. I can't figure how it even has time to grow that big!

                              Hope you get your car all patched up without too much hassle from insurance.

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