Thursday, May 26, 2011

I've never seen anything like this!


The wall cloud passed right behind our neighborhood, kept dropping down then lifting.

This hailstone reminds me of something from the Flintstones. Scary stuff, this was.

The tornado sirens blared all evening. The sky darkened about 4:00 (so glad I was home and not at work. I'd had the radio on all afternoon as the storm began to build down south of us) The news stations were giving the trajectory of the storm: heading up Hy 55, now at such and such.

When I got home, Hubby and I looked out our back window and saw the wall cloud right behind us, less than a mile away. This view is of our neighbors' back yards. Then all hail broke loose, first nickel-size then grew increasingly bigger until it was ball-size with spikes. The next door neighbor lady was out in her yard when it started pelting. As these ice bombs began to fall and hit roofs, it sounded like gun shots. She grabbed a plastic picinc chair and used it as an umbrella as she ran to her porch.

This storm was an incredible demonstration of nature's strenghth. Neighbors have car damage, some property damage through town as this beast made its way North and across the river. When the news people reported it was headed downtown and towards the Arch, I had visions of that structure toppling, but the storm swung east and into Illinois. Yikes! What a night.

12 comments:

Sioux Roslawski said...

If that's hail, that's a big'un!

Linda O'Connell said...

Yep, that was hail in our neck of the woods.

Kim Lehnhoff said...

We didn't have any hail yesterday, just the torrential rain and wind and those ominous clouds.

We're right along 55 - I spent those few hours watching the weather updates online and looking outside to see how bad it was.

Looks like we dodged a big bullet.

Donna Volkenannt said...

We were spared the hail, but got the wind and rain. This spring is one for the books.

donna

Susan said...

Oh Man, Linda. That must have been something else. Never in my LIFE have I seen that kind of hailstone...or that humongo size. Thank God you and your family are okay. Susan

Karen Lange said...

My goodness, glad you guys are okay! I wondered how the storms affected your location. Take care and have a great weekend! :)

Chatty Crone said...

Oh my goodness - glad you and your home are okay. We had a hail storm once - but the balls were round - never saw one like well - a snow flake. Ruined our roof and had to get a new one - at least the cars were in the garage. Check everything!

Lisa Ricard Claro said...

So glad you're okay. That is some hail. We have a lot of tornado warnings here, and I've seen some pretty big hail, but never anything spiky like that. Wow.

Tammy said...

Oh my gosh! That freakish thing looks like a weapon! :-o

Val said...

Those are impressive pictures! Please tell me you took cover, that you did not go out in the yard to watch, like some old neighbors of mine used to do when the sirens sounded.

Donna B. said...

I cannot believe that hail spike ball!! I am praying up a storm for everyone over there...I have read about people several miles away, finding x-rays, photos, belongings, etc in their front yards... I pray you stay safe!

BECKY said...

UNBELIEVABLE!! I've never seen spikey hail, either!! So good that you took a picture of it. And that cloud.....OMG! I thought of you when I heard on TV about the wall cloud, tunnel clouds, tornadoes, etc. were heading your way. I even mentioned it to The Ronald!! Glad it missed us all, again. Now..our forecast is for HOT and SUNNY...Yay!!