Hail !!!!

There's a hurricane passing way south of us: Willa. We thought it might mean a chance of rain here, but odds dropped as it stayed south. A check of the sky today showed clouds building in all the usual spots, i.e., not here, and radar showed small spots of rain by later afternoon. Again, not here, and aimed away. As the sky darkened, radar still showed it well away from here.

Sigh.

But then there were a few drops hitting the steel awning over the front sidewalk along the house. They were the kind that evaporate seconds after hitting the ground. A check also showed they were hitting the front yard, not the back. Typical, being just on the sharp edge of moisture.

Sigh. No wonder we're called Sun City.

Then it started to show it meant business. We could actually hear, as levels increased, the edge of the rain moving across our roof into the back yard. Quickly, it was pouring. Then hailing!

Cool! No, really, we could turn off the AC as the temperature rapidly dropped from upper 80s to mid 60s.

While only dime sized, mostly, it was pounding us for over 20 minutes. Hail is so rare here that we decided to head out to the patio and watch something more entertaining than the TV. Despite lack of wind, the hail was hitting so hard it was bouncing off the ground and into the covered patio. Some even made it as far as the door.

Camera time!

I set it on video: stills just wouldn't tell the story. Besides bouncing in, hail was coming down so fast it continued to show a white yard even though it was melting rapidly. Puddles collected all over the back yard, and as they grew into small ponds the splashing kicked up the water over 3" in some cases. Under the steel patio roof it was so loud I could barely tell Steve was yelling. If I had to guess, I would have said it was just a series of whoops like one might yell early in a roller coaster ride. If it was important, he would have needed to do something drastic to get my attention. I was busy filming.

When the hail finally quit, it was still pouring, though now the decibel level dropped enough that we could tell there was continuous thunder. There was so much standing water that the birds flew in and took advantage of their rare communal birdbath, including the 1st red-winged blackbird I've seen down here.

Once the hail ended, it was just another thunderstorm. No more filming. There was already an inch of rain in the gauge, with more pounding us for a while. There were cushions and a wood table to rescue outside, windows to open for fresh cool air, and more radar checks to make.

There was also the fun of watching the runoff in the street. This area is so flat only a good rain really indicates up and down. Yes, the streets are crowned, eventually the only place showing above running water. Watching one car coming "down" our street, I watched the driver hitting its brakes about three houses down. The whole street was flooded there, better than half a block from the next intersection. It wasn't enough to stop for, at least as far as I could still follow the car's path.

Tomorrow I'll know how much rain we got. Last time I looked it was 1 1/2 inches, but it was still coming down. Suppertime news showed streets in Sun City from helicopter views after sunset where cars had stalled out after driving into the water, one totally submerged but with its headlights still shining. They also showed the idiots, of course, who loved wading through flowing water up to the hips. We're not sure, from shots where the only landmarks were palm trees in the middle of a temporary lake, just how high the standing water would be in intersections right around here, but Steve wisely decided to skip cards tonight. His scooter has about a 3" clearance.


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FYI: 2 1/2 inches in the gauge, in just over an hour.