My daughter & I got stuck at the orthodontist office in the big city, as a tornado came out of the skies while we were there. We had to sit tight & watch the weather. It moved off East and we were able to make it to her dance class, but not before some big hail stones hit my truck! Now, we are grateful for the rain, but we could do without the hail & tornadoes. My wife was stuck at home in our little town and she got hail - lots of it. She took pictures: On my violets: In some pots Backyard (with obligatory hose on the lawn) Front yard Later on, after we got home, we thought we heard somebody walking around on our roof, so I went outside to get the booger off. It wasn't anybody on our roof, but large hail stones hitting. I collected a few:
About 10:00 P.M., the TV people said, a tornado had apparently touched down 4 miles South of my little town. We have a small cellar (I use it to over-Winter tropicals) in the garage. The wife & I gathered cell phones, blankets, flash lights, a TV w/ an antenna and then woke up our 6 year-old daughter & we all went into the cellar for a while. We call the cellar the "fraidy hole" - the hole you go into when you're afraid. Most folks call it storm shelter, or storm cellar, but I've always liked fraidy hole. We sat in there for about a half-hour, 'til the tornadic storm passed by. We got lots of rain, some more hail, but no twister, thank God!! My daughther actually fell back asleep down there!
Some very big hail there. I've never seen anything like it. I don't think I want to either. I'm so glad you were safe and snug in your fraidy hole.
Oh my! You be safe those are some monster hail stones we got some the size of peas a couple of years ago and I thought they were big! I love your name for your storm shelter the Fraidy hole sounds perfect! The thought of tornadoes scares the life out of me I don't think Id cope in an area like yours with the constant threat of them!
I'm glad the tornado passed over and that you weren't subjected to any damage. The biggest hailstones I've ever seen were pea sized. I don't think I'd like to see ones as big as those in your photographs.
WTxDaddy, glad you and the family are OK. If you have a shingle roof, call your insurance company. The same thing happened here two years ago with tornadoes and large size hail. Over 90 houses in my subdivision had to have roofs replaced because of "bruising". Looking at the roof from the ground you could not tell it. Roofer said if not replaced it would eventually leak. Good luck, GDC.
We are supposed to get some of that weather in a few minutes, radar shows we have some coming up from the southwest. Maybe some hail but definitely high winds and rain thru the day. Glad you all made it safe thru the storm.
Folks, this is Spring weather in West Texas. The heating of air from the sun & some moisture from the Gulf of Mexico (or Pacific systems) brings us rain. We get most of our 18-inch annual rainfall in Spring. This is tornado alley, unfortunately. But when you think about it, destructive as tornadoes are, they are smaller than hurricanes and you can get down in the ground to get away from tornadoes. I will talk to our insurance agent today about checking the roof out. Her husband used to be an insurance adjuster. I hope the roof does not need replacing - I hate it when those guys come & drop all their trash in my yard! I checked the roof of my pick-up truck and didn't notice any dents - whew! I always liked the term "fraidy hole". As a kid, I only used the term "fraidy" for "fraidy cat" and "fraidy hole". Although these hailstones I picked up seem big, several people in the area got tennis-ball size stones. They sent pictures to the TV stations, which showed them last night & this morning. Got a good 2 inches of rain outta this, though. We could use several inches more - the cotton farmers will be planting in about 2 - 3 weeks. Wheat is already up and I hope it didn't get smashed by the hail.
