Crazy Weather This Year

[GaryHibbert]

Well we had a heck of a storm yesterday. This weather is just crazy this year. It was a nice day, warm but not hot enough to bring on a storm.
Mid afternoon, it started to thunder and lightning. Then a torrential down pore. In the middle of the down pore it started to hail--just small stuff at first. Then the size of the hail stones rapidly increased to the size of tennis balls. They were crashing down everywhere.
In the picture below, Miss Linda is holding one of the hail stones. Since her hands are pretty small, I took another pic with a pack of smokes for size reference.

I went out this morning to check the damage. I've got a big dent right in the center of the hood on my 3/4 ton, the roof has lots of dents, and the windshield is beat all to hell. There are 3 holes in the siding on the house, and some damage to the roof of the house and garage. The yard was littered with spruce branches 1 to 2 inches thick that had been broken off by the hail.
The really strange sight, though, was all the holes punched in the lawn. They're about the size of a tennis ball and about 1 1/2 inches deep. Actually they are kinda neat to look at. Sure won't have to aerate the lawn this fall. LOL
So....some damage, but compared to the scene about 4 miles away, what we got was nothing. The hail stones there were the size of softballs. LOTS of damage over that way.
Gary

 

[noboundaries]

W...O...W! So glad to hear you were on the light end of the damage, Gary. The insurance companies will be busy.

 

[chilerelleno]

Be glad you're better off than others, count your blessings.

Hope you insurance covers hail damage, unless your deductible is too high to bother... Sucks sometimes.

We've some 52' foot box trailers that the roofs of look the average Stop sign at a backwoods crossroad, shall we say, well dimpled with a few holes.
Hail storms, anywhere from golf ball to tennis ball sized hail.

 

[johnmeyer]

Hail is an insurance company's biggest nightmare: you have an operational car that drives perfectly, but one that doesn't have any metal or glass intact, and which looks like a wreck. How do you repair that??

Same nightmare for you too, of course.

Weather is weird every year, just more weird some years than others. I remember back around 1959 when the lakes in southern Wisconsin all but dried up. Our dock wouldn't even make it to the water's edge whereas in a normal year you could dive off the end.

A few years later, we had snow in June in Chicago.

I could go on. As long as you're OK and as long as the repairs don't bankrupt you, just pull out a cold one and enjoy the ride.

 

[drdon]

WOW! Attack of the ice monsters! Glad to hear no one was hurt, but large scale damage like that is just NASTY! The next day the evidence (ice) is gone but the dents, dings and broken windshields are still there. Very strange.

 

[mike243]

Had the same thing happen and caught us out trying to pu a buddy from the airport, moon scaped our car busted the windshield and a taillight. Glad we had Gap coverage. it paid the car off and give use $ which we bought the car back dirt cheap, fixed the window and lite and still driving it. Was shocked the moon roof wasn't busted as it put down 4" of hail onto the road of all sizes.

 

[seaham358]

Thats crazy.. Good luck dealing with the insurance company.

 

[bluewhisper]

I WANT RAIN my gardens are dry crumbles. My rain barrels are drained and *spits a curse* I actually had to use the garden hose.

I never used the hose last year.

 

[gmc2003]

That's a little warning from Ullr the Viking god of snow. Just reminding you - he doesn't take a summer vacation.

We've had hail before, but nothing that size. Happy to hear nobody took one on the top of the old bean.

Chris

 

[HalfSmoked]

WOW Gary glad you are OK the other things are mostly repairable but ones life and some parts of our body are not. Glad your safe.

Warren

 

[Bearcarver]

Wow---I can't even imagine Hail that big.
We just had the biggest Hail I ever saw this year, and that was only about "Quarter" size.
Glad you weren't in the "worse" area!!

Bear

 

[chopsaw]

the roof has lots of dents

And then some ,,, I've seen some bad hail damage to roofs . That size can cause the sheathing to separate from the truss face . The impact forces the sheathing away ( down ) from the nail head , then back up . So constant impact over even a few minutes of large hail can cause the nails to pull up , or even out .
Never saw a insurance company hesitate to make things right , just know there may be damage to the roof you can't see .

 

[GaryHibbert]

Thanks for that advice. I have to get an extention ladder so I can go up on the roof and check things out.
Gary

 

[GaryHibbert]

Thanks everybody. I've been in lots of hail storms, but like Bear says, it was always small hail. Never experienced anything of this size before.
Miss Linda, Roxy, and I stood out on the covered deck and watched the hail coming down--pretty impressive. You sure don't want to p*ss off Ma Nature.
There was no way any of us were about to stick our heads out in that. Material things can be repaired or junked, but I'm not quite ready to junk this body. LOL
And if it was a warning from the god of snow.....well, summer's been just one rainstorm after another. Haven't seen a hot, sunny day often enough to miss it.
Gary

 

[johnmeyer]

We just had the biggest Hail I ever saw this year, and that was only about "Quarter" size.

Reminds me of the funny observation: "Why is hail always the size of something else?"

 

[Bearcarver]

Reminds me of the funny observation: "Why is hail always the size of something else?"

Yup---I guess because Hail seems to vary in sizes from Pea size to Softball size, and maybe even Soccer Ball size, so we can't very well describe it by saying it was "Hail Size".

Bear

 

[johnmeyer]

Yup---I guess because Hail seems to vary in sizes from Pea size to Softball size, and maybe even Soccer Ball size, so we can't very well describe it by saying it was "Hail Size".

Bear

True, but when I measure a board for cutting, I don't think, "make this the length of a banana" but instead say, "make it ten inches." What happened to our good old-fashioned ruler when it comes to hail?

My daughter is pregnant and is doing the same thing. Yesterday she told me that the nurse said the baby is the size of an avocado.

 

[chilerelleno]

Sizes and shapes that are instantly relatable to by most people.
You'd be surprised how many people would need a ruler to relate to 3".
Maybe more surprised at how many people can't even use a ruler/tape measure.

 

[johnmeyer]

Sizes and shapes that are instantly relatable to by most people.
You'd be surprised how many people would need a ruler to relate to 3".
Maybe more surprised at how many people can't even use a ruler/tape measure.

Good point. I'm sure that's why it's done. However, I just can't overcome my engineering training and its incessant demand for accuracy. For instance, when my daughter used the avocado "measurement," I immediately thought of this:

That's 2:1 difference in height which is an 8:1 difference in volume.

Same thing with hail "the size of grapefruit."

At least when they say it's the size of a golf ball or baseball, those are fixed and standardized, so it means something.

OK, I'm beating this into the ground. Sorry about that.

 

[GaryHibbert]

Reminds me of the funny observation: "Why is hail always the size of something else?"

Hey John, I read this and laughed out loud. LOL
Gary