Tennis Anyone? How 'bout Baseball?

[Sparky-Watts]

Had us a little ol' hailstorm about 7 am this morning. Here at home, we had dime to nickel-sized hail that covered the ground 3" deep. However, in Wichita, they had tennisball, baseball, and even softball-sized hail in a 3/4 mile wide path through the NW edge of the city. Here's a shot of the storm coming in from the shop:

Nice little roll cloud, eh?

Here it is as it passed the shop, from the backside:

Pretty mean looking, eh? Quite a bit of turbulence there, of course there'd have to be to keep a baseball sized hailstone aloft.

These hailstones had been laying on the ground melting for an hour and a half by the time I found them and took this picture:

I counted over 100 vehicles in a three mile stretch of 13th street that had one or more windows broken out. Wish I owned a roofing company or a body shop in Wichita about now!!

 

[joedirt]

That is insane size,You'd never see that here.I can image vehicles having dents,and broken windows.I"ve never seen hail that big before we only get little pebbles for hail.

 

[mingez]

damn!!!

That horizon view is WAY cool! It's like "Apocalypse is upon us" cool!

 

[mingez]

damn!!!

That horizon view is WAY cool! It's like "Apocalypse is upon us" cool!

 

[mud4feet]

I've seen those skies before.........that's when i RUN!!!!!!!!! Man, my little TJ has dimples on 'er from a hailstorm we had............glad them stones weren't THAT big! You need to move to NC, Sparky!

 

[TwistedCU]

Holy Shnikeys!!!!

 

[Sparky-Watts]

The customer on my first service call this morning lost both the windshield and back windows out of both of his cars (a 2005 Accord and a 2004 Lexus). One dent in the roof of his Honda was just inches away from his sunroof and was every bit of 2" deep and 6" across!! I'm sure it would've shattered his sunroof if it would have hit it! It totally shattered his patio table, the kind with the half inch thick frosted glass top, and punched holes in some wicker and plastic patio furniture as well.

 

[mud4feet]

The customer on my first service call this morning lost both the windshield and back windows out of both of his cars (a 2005 Accord and a 2004 Lexus). One dent in the roof of his Honda was just inches away from his sunroof and was every bit of 2" deep and 6" across!! I'm sure it would've shattered his sunroof if it would have hit it! It totally shattered his patio table, the kind with the half inch thick frosted glass top, and punched holes in some wicker and plastic patio furniture as well.

Something to be said for vertical windshields and plastic windows!!!!!urple: urple: urple:

 

[90growler]

A recent hail storm (golfball size) beat the crap out of my WJ and my house. I had the WJ being fixed and the following week another hail storm (Golf Ball for about 20 min.) Beat the crap out of my rental truck and my house again. (luckily my YJ and XJ were in the garage). I am getting a new roof tomorrow. I have never seen anything like that in Mid-TN.

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Back in '85 I bought a brand new Toyota 4x4 PU on May 9th. May 10th, we had a hailstorm with hailstones up to the size of grapefruits that pounded the area for over 20 minutes. Fortunately, I was up in the sandhills above town (when I lived in Hutchinson) watching the storm pass through. All I got were a couple of sprinkles, but when I got back to town I was floored! My brother rode out the storm in a station wagon that he drove on his security job. The roof was caved in and actually had holes in it where you could see daylight. There wasn't a piece of glass left intact anywhere on the car, and all the trim and moulding had been broken off. It actually looked like the car had been rolled!! The hailstones actually left craters in the ground where they hit, so bad that the local golf courses were closed for days while they fixed the putting greens.

 

[mingez]

Back in '85 I bought a brand new Toyota 4x4 PU on May 9th. May 10th, we had a hailstorm with hailstones up to the size of grapefruits that pounded the area for over 20 minutes. Fortunately, I was up in the sandhills above town (when I lived in Hutchinson) watching the storm pass through. All I got were a couple of sprinkles, but when I got back to town I was floored! My brother rode out the storm in a station wagon that he drove on his security job. The roof was caved in and actually had holes in it where you could see daylight. There wasn't a piece of glass left intact anywhere on the car, and all the trim and moulding had been broken off. It actually looked like the car had been rolled!! The hailstones actually left craters in the ground where they hit, so bad that the local golf courses were closed for days while they fixed the putting greens.

Serioulsy...did anyone die in that storm? Geez.

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Serioulsy...did anyone die in that storm? Geez.

No, but there were several people at a softball game that were seriously injured, and I remember something about someone getting beaned sitting in their living room when a hailstone came through the roof. Several cattle and horses were killed, though. I was probably 10 miles outside of town watching the storm go through, and the roar of those things hitting the ground was deafening from where I was, I can only imagine what it sounded like in town. I just happened to be out in the sandhills trying out my new 4x4 when it hit, otherwise, it would have been totalled. Something like 60% of the vehicles in the city were totalled by the hail!!

I've been caught out in the open by nickel sized hail before, and lemme tellya, that hurts bad enough!! I remember one night storm chasing, I was cruising down a little two-track road in a hailstorm, when a jackrabbit jumped out in front of me. He was running along about 25mph when a golf-ball sized hailstone hit him dead center on top of the head!!:lol: Stopped him dead in his tracks, literally!! I was laughing so hard I had to pull over!!