My neck of the woods was the focus of a lot of wrath coming down from the sky about a week ago. It had started out as a nice day, scattered thunderstorms here and there but nice enough, about eighty degrees when the sun was out. Well that day was also our weekly game night, Flounder had been itching to get to grips with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3.0, and we were all going to make characters. The weather went from bad to worse. Then it went from worse to biblical. Three successive hailstorms hit during the evening, and not just the little hail either, literal golfball-sized hail the likes I've never seen before.
By the way, if you're a reader of both mine and Andy's blogs then you've already seen this, he beat me to it some time ago. Since it's his car shattered and broken in the above pic, I thought he deserved at least a mention or two!
You can see where the table used to sit, back with the other chairs. Don't ask about the umbrella that was attached to the table, it is in about twenty separate pieces right now.
This plant is kind of my pride and joy. It also weighs about seventy-five pounds and is difficult to maneuver so I couldn't just hop out and bring him in. It's a Philodendron, but not just any philly, it's a thirty-six year old Philodendron that was bought by my folks the same week I was born. I'm an only child so in a lot of ways this is my plant-brother. Although it looks like a dump-truck ran over it, I am hopeful it will bounce back.
More of the hailstones as my little ceramic people hold on for dear life...
This is the view of the side yard
The hail as it was coming out of the gutter in a deluge. Look closely and you can see the vortex swirl of it as it was draining out. That's just crazy!
A roiling ocean of churning ice at the bottom of the driveway
Andy said it best already; put into perspective, this was certainly an interesting event and even though everyone's cars took major damage we got off very lucky. There are many in the region who lost entire homes and even loved ones. So this week took a hit, in more ways than one. We'll get everyone back together again soon, maybe keeping a more watchful eye on the weather reports beforehand.
Wow! That looks crazy! The largest hail I've seen was maybe 5-6mm. Scary.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your WFRP3 adventures! We've had a lot of fun with it even though The Gathering Storm might not be the best adventure out there...
Glad to hear everyone's ok where you are too! That hail vortex pic is pretty awesome!
ReplyDeleteWow! I can't believe the windows in that car! I'm glad that everyone was okay. :)
ReplyDeleteAmazing how the glass table top survived and the car windshield didn't .... weird !
ReplyDelete@Martin: I was too fascinated by the sheer destructive power to actually get scared or worried. That's a very bad evolutionary trait on my part! Hopefully we'll reboot this week and try to make characters again.
ReplyDelete@Tristan: We're good, thanks. I didn't notice the vortex pic until after I uploaded the pics, I think it was going too fast for me to see what was happening.
@Christian: We are good, only minor damage (but this year's garden was obliterated) That was my buddies car, who's wife called him prior to the storm pleading for him to come home. He said, "Nay woman, I am rolling thy dice!" I think she got the last laugh. Actually the insurance company got the final laugh.
@Joe: What glass tabletop? The one on the deck is wrought iron, if it had glass it would've shattered I'm sure...the neighbor's one did.
ReplyDeleteThat's my car (thanks for blotting out the lic. plate). I had a glass patio table that didn't break, I guess it was just too thick.
ReplyDeleteNo problem, if I didn't we'd have everyone in California tracking down your address!
ReplyDeleteWOW those pics are amazing. I am glad no one got hurt.
ReplyDeleteNow that is just insane! Glad to hear that you're all okay though.
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