Friday, July 17, 2009

At Last!


After a long, hot, dry spell with a high pressure system firmly in place over Oklahoma and weeks of 100-plus heat, a slow moving cold front yesterday brought enough instability to trigger some boomers, resulting in almost an inch of badly-needed rain with a bonus of cool temperatures.

I first observed a buildup of cumulonimbus north of us about 3:00. At 4:30 I heard the first crackle of thunder and grabbed my camera to capture pictures of the rapidly developing storm.





The sheets of rain and wind gusts and frequent, close lightning increased, and by 4:40, small hail began falling, so I had to stop taking pictures and seek shelter inside.


A few minutes later the hail became one inch ice chunks and finally golf-ball sized hail! It looked like someone was throwing dozens of golf balls into our yard and the noise was incredible. The rain was blowing sideways at that point so I was unable to take the camera out the door and capture the sight. I did soak myself grabbing these souvenirs from the yard.

8 comments:

  1. Wow what a storm! That's some might big hail...

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  2. I've never seen anything like that! Hail, a person could get a concussion!

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  3. Thats some big hail! If that hit Grumpy's new truck he'd have a heart attack!

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  4. What a storm,...I hope for you that it is now all over,...Look at those huge bigg balls of hail!!

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  5. But those storms bring much needed summer rain. We have been lucky on the prairie this July -- it has been a wet July!

    Great pictures of your storm -- I've never thought to take any.

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  6. Carrie, it's the biggest I've seen up close and personal. ;)

    LadyJP, I was actually nervous going to pick it up.

    HoneyB, I was very grateful we had shelter for the vehicles.

    Sophie, here in Oklahoma, it's usually fast and furious.

    Martha, you have been lucky--it does seem like you've gotten a lot of rain this summer!

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  7. I have never seen hail that big in my entire life. It must cause so much damage to property and some folks must even get pretty stung by it if they happen to be caught outside when it comes pelting down. We've had rain almost every day for 2 months, sporadic sunshine in between. When the sun comes out, everyone rushes to see it, us included!

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  8. Katy, some in the neighborhood had roof damage.

    You have had a really wet summer!

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