Hail hurts!

All day the weather service had been warning that severe weather was heading our way. The rains that came through this morning were not significant, especially after hearing about the tornadoes in New Orleans. By early afternoon the sun was shining brightly and it looked like we just had to wait for the temperatures to drop.

This evening I had to get out and make a trip to the post office along with another meeting to attend on the east side of town. The lightening out in the west was spectacular, but still distant. After arriving at the meeting location, soon the tornado sirens started up and we were shepherded out into the hallway. The storm was headed toward downtown so I decided to rush home and beat the worst weather to the house. It started out well, but then the hail started coming down. Little chunks at first, and then they got bigger and bigger. We could see quarter-size chunks on the ground when we pulled up to a stop light.

Within blocks of the house, these were no longer small pieces of hail hitting the car. These were golf ball-size rocks coming down. The sound was totally unexpected-very loud and sinister sounds that made me wonder if the windshield was going to break. The streets were white and for a moment I wondered if I hadn't made a wrong turn and ended up with Steve in Maine. As I turned at an intersection a block away, I felt the tires slide on the ice. Thats an experience we don't encounter very often here.

At the house, we had to use an umbrella to make it inside the house without being hit by the chunks of ice. The view on the patio looks as though I had dumped several large ice chests out during one of the parties.

After about 20 minutes, it was over. Heavy rain fell in its place and melted the ice away. Then I knew that unlike Steve's snowy weather, we were still in the south enjoying our two weeks of winter weather.