Yes, HAIL in July…it was 18 Degrees C (64.4 Degrees F) @ 11:50pm on Saturday night and we’d been watching the weather warnings for several hours. Here’s what they were saying at Environment Canada (I’ve blacked-out the cities and towns):
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING: Bonnyville – St. Paul - Cold Lake – Lac La Biche Issued at 11:54 PM MDT SATURDAY 18 JULY 2009
AT 11:50 PM RADAR INDICATED A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS JUST OVER COLD LAKEAND EXTENDING NORTH THAT IS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING LARGE HAIL AND STRONG WINDS. THIS LINE IS MOVING EAST AT 50 KM/H. THIS IS A WARNING THAT SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE IMMINENT OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. REMEMBER THAT SOME SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCE TORNADOES. LISTEN FOR UPDATED WARNINGS. NOTE..A SUMMARY OF ALL WARNINGS AND WATCHES FOR NORTHERN ALBERTA IS AVAILABLE IN THE WWCN16 CWWG BULLETIN ISSUED IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THIS BULLETIN. PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST PUBLIC FORECASTS FOR FURTHER DETAILS.
AN UNSTABLE AIRMASS HAS RESULTED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS CENTRAL ALBERTA. SOME OF THESE STORMS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BECOME SEVERE.
We did have some crazy-strong wind, savage lightning, a torrential downpour and hail. Luckily there weren’t (as far as we know) any other issues…no tornado as far as we know. The worst part of it lasted about 20 minutes and now there’s just rain and lightning…I know, I know…I shouldn’t be on the computer during a storm.
So, here are some pictures that vividly illustrate what I’ve been gabbing about:
A picture of our front lawn…notice the hail & the gnome? ;)
This is a picture of the top of my son’s screened-in soccer arena (it’s 6 feet tall and about 20 feet around)…DH stood up on a chair to take this picture of the hail that had collected on top…that’s DS inside the soccer arena, taking some pictures of his own.
DH and I collected some of the hail in a bowl to show our DS; he was REALLY excited abut seeing them close-up!!! Yes, it hurt a little, getting pinged with the hail as it was falling, but I didn’t want the hail to melt before DS had a chance to examine them. ;)
The bits of hail varied in size, some as small as dimes with others as big as golf balls, and everything in between!
So everything is okay and we all made it through fine…but what a thing to see, buckets of hail on the 18th of July!
Update: in the bright light of day, DH noticed that we have about 30 or so dents in the top of our car from the hail…they’re pretty small so we’re just going to leave it be. No sense getting insurance to cover it (which raises rates), just to have it happen again, possibly very soon. Maybe, after a couple more thunderstorms that have hail…once the car looks more like a pock-marked golf ball…then we’ll get it fixed. lol ;)
