Weather in Colorado can be unpredictable. When green tinged thunderclouds roll in, I cross my fingers we don’t get hail.
Yesterday, pea-sized hail grew to marble size in seconds. After the quick storm, I checked out the plants. Most of the flowers made it through. I let out a held breath.
Eight miles away, golf and tennis ball-sized hail crashed through windshields and skylights. We were lucky.
That would be the last hail storm of the season, right?
Around 11:30 AM, clouds rolled in with that weird eerie green hue again. As the pea-sized ice balls began to fall, I thought about how rare it was to get two hail storms in two days. It would stop soon.
Nope.
The pea grew into a marble then expanded to a quarter-sized ice projectile that struck the windows like bullets. I thought the glass would shatter so I stepped away from them. The sound was deafening!
I took this video right before the peak of the storm.
Winter the day before summer.
Just as I started to panic, the storm tapered off and the skies parted. Sunshine poured down on a winter scene.
In one place on the deck, hail is still piled up a foot and a half and it’s 9:00 at night as I’m writing this.
The Devastation of Hail Storm 2018
The storm stripped the leaves from trees and the blossoms of annuals and perennials.
Stalks and thinned branches remained. It hurt my heart, but they’ll grow back.
Found Beauty
Those icy bullets reflected in the light like uncut diamond jewels and gems.
Some resembled sliced kiwi and other tomatoes.
Nature can be terrifying and gorgeous.
The storm became fierce as it headed east and dropped ice balls from the sky injuring livestock and people out enjoying the last spring day.
The mound of hail remains on the deck two days later like the remnants of a snowstorm. Soon it will melt and new leaves and flowers will grow. A testament to nature’s resilience.
Happy Summer!
Click for more adventures on the Wild Ride!
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Right? The pile is still there this morning!
Thanks for sharing, Laurie!
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Holy cow!!!! That is so scary. Tennis ball hail!! We are in Idaho right now, and have had a couple hail storms, but not like that. I’m glad it was only your trees that took a beating.
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Me too! The plants will perk up. Thanks, Mary!
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Wow! Great photos and video, and sorry about the damage, hopefully it’s early enough in the season to let everything recover…
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Thanks, John! I’m glad I didn’t plant a vegetable garden.
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The first significant hail storm I can remember was after my parents divorced (so maybe 1997-8)? After it was over, I thought it was the coolest thing to go out and pick up these “ice marbles” and was laughing like crazy.
Flash forward to 2005(?)…I was working at the dollar store and pulled a customer’s car around because it was raining/hailing. I think I’m an idiot now for willingly allowing myself to get bonked in the head by ice pellets–but an idiot worth giggling at! (Besides, management looked the other way when the customer and her daughter handed me a $2 tip, so they paid for my snack at break time. 😉 )
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That was so nice of you! Even the pea-sized hail hurts.
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Holy Moses! Very impressive and yes, devastating.
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I realized the extent of it yesterday when I cut flowers for bouquets and only filled one vase!
Thanks, Susan!
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Reminds me of a song “Every time it rains, it rains, pebbles from heaven.”
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Ha! No truer words…
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Definitely a day to stay indoors! Amazing though.
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It really was scary! I’m so glad I did didn’t get caught in it while walking the dog.
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That is unbelievable Susie. Never seen hail like that anywhere, must have been deafening and scary.
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It was! We get hail a few times a year, but pea-sized is as big as it usually gets. There will be a lot of insurance claims in our area, for sure!
Thanks, Jonno!
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You’ve described it perfectly – terrifying and gorgeous.
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Thank you, Anneli! It was.
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Wow. It is gorgeous to look at, but so, soooo loud! I have never seen hail quite that massive before!
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It was deafening and reminded me of tornadoes.
Thanks, Josy!
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I have seen hail here but never anything like that.. yowsers…
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It was crazy!!!
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I know those clouds. In Australia they have the same clouds and size of hail. Mostly in NEW Zealand the clouds are blue black and the hail stays at pea size mostly. It’s noisy and scary. In Oz they have Hail Car Sales if it dents the cars on the yard.
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Oh, man! I think we could take advantage of a car dent sale! I bet there will be lots of them. The weather sounds wild in your part of the world! 🌎
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We’ve had some pretty serious thunderstorms roll through Vicksburg too. They don’t last very long and fortunately, here in the city limits, we haven’t had any major damage. Today as I write this it is so dark outside it looks like night. So much for summer.
Take care. I hope your garden is alive and well again real soon.
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
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Thanks, Patricia! Do you get tornadoes? Those black clouds on the edge of a front can be ominous and is where they are formed.
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We are in tornado alley yes, but they never seem to want to destroy Vicksburg. We’re quite hilly so it’s hard for funnel clouds to touch down except along the river.
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That’s good to hear! We’re protected too. Famous last words… 🙂
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That fits just right in there with how this summer is rolling along … glad to hear there wasn’t any worse damage.
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Me too, Widderwoman!!
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I would never have imagined that devastation would be beautiful! Indeed the hailstones look magical.
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Thanks, BB!! It was pretty cool to check out with all those strange ice formations!
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That is scarily awesome!
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That is insane! The weather is getting more and more biblical
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Exactly!! I expect a cloud of locusts to arrive soon.
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Yes!! And frogs
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Ha!
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It’s amazing to me, Susie! Weather phenomena from your experience is totally unfamiliar to me. LOL! But I think the wild ride might be interesting, and it surely is beautiful in its aftermath, when the destruction is minimal, of course. Thanks for sharing. Had I just heard about it, I don’t think I could have really understood. 🙂
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Good On Jun 21, 2018 7:25 PM, “Susie Lindau’s Wild Ride” wrote:
> susielindau posted: ” Weather in Colorado can be unpredictable. When green > tinged thunderclouds roll in, I cross my fingers we don’t get hail. > Yesterday, pea-sized hail grew to marble size in seconds. After the quick > storm, I checked out the plants. Most of the flowers made” >
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I was stuck in my car during that hailstorm. It was so loud, I thought the hail was going to break through the windshield or sunroof. Fortunately, not. My zucchini garden was totaled, but like the resilient monster it can be, it has restored itself completely. Nature is fun, scary, and often really, really cool.
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Wow! That must have been intense. I’m glad your garden bounced back!
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