What The Hail!

As of about 8 PM local time we are experiencing an intense thunderstorm with, incredibly, hailstones the size of elephants!  OK, *small* elephants; elephants about the diameter of a Jefferson nickel, actually.

For the sake of science, I have included a photo from my backyard lounge chair of the hailstones that fell there (as well as a couple I picked up by hand after a ten second scan for large ones); for scale, I also placed down a penny, nickel, dime and quarter.  The very tony lighting was provided by a hand-held flashlight since the flash unit of the camera was not working properly.

So what does it mean?  Let's see - the consensus is that we have the world war... fortunately I can't find "hailstones" on the list.

Comments

[clarice]

Where are you...the storm is rolling in here now and hope we aren't getting what you just did.

[Sue]

I'm in hell. Or the closest thing to hell on earth. Texas. ::grin::

[Jane]

I've just got lightening to beat the band here. I can't wait for the cooling rain.

[Sue]

The thermometer on my patio (covered) read 103 at 6:30 PM this afternoon. And I believe it.

[TexasToast]

It was 95 at 10:30 last night.

[Sue]

Texas,

I believe it. Our swimming pool feels like a hot tub. ::grin::

[Sue]

I'm thinking of throwing some ice in it to cool it off. ::grin:: Wonder how much ice it would take?

[ordi]

Is this what you call "Tuesday Night Ice"?

[Rick Ballard]

Sue,

Pump out about six inches and refill from the hose. It's a lot cheaper - depending on how you're charged for water, of course.

[Sue]

Except the water out of the hose is almost as hot as the water in the pool. ::grin:: We have taken the shop fan out to the pool and when we need to cool off, stand wet in front of it. ::grin:: Necessity, the mother of inventions.

[cathyf]

That's wussy hail. Did you ever see the Storm Stories where the 2 storm chasing graduate students get caught driving by baseball-sized hail? Their video camera is running as they are driving on the rural road looking for shelter, and the windows of the car are all broken out. Most of the dialog is bleeped out at this part!

Now that is hail!

cathy :-)

[Gary Maxwell]

OT

What might be very good news, Cynthia McKinney is currently trailing in the primary race. Its close enough that it could swing back but as it stands right now she is very close to not making a runoff and her challenger may break 50%.

[clarice]

It's the Joos again. LOL

[maryrose]

I agree with cathyf:
That hail looks pretty tame to me... When it's the size of a golf ball or baseball then you are talking. This thread should be entitiled"How Hot Was IT?"
Here in Ohio we hit 90 for the first time yesterday otherwise it's been a great summer. Sue's invention sounds like a great idea if I had a pool.
Gary: That news is music to my ears-remember she was beaten once before...maybe the voters are finally figuring out how "off the hook" she is.

[maryrose]

Is some of that hail melting in the picture? just asking.

[ordi]

Hail hail the gangs all here!

[ordi]

Gary and Mary,

Michelle Malkin has this post over at her site:

Voters trickling in and out of Holy Trinity Church on East Ponce de Leon Avenue, walking distance from Decatur’s downtown square, said U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s run-in with Capitol police prompted them to vote against her.

Anne Dishman, 37, a stay-at-home mom, voted for McKinney’s opponent in the Democratic primary, Hank Johnson.

'I don’t know a lot about him, but it is important that Cynthia is not voted back into office,' she said.

Sounds like she may be going down! Let's all keep our fingers crossed! If she does she probably blame "the Jews" again.

[ordi]

Here is the latest Mckinney numbers. It has tightened up.

John Coyne 1,631 8%
Hank Johnson 8,894 47%
Cynthia McKinney 8,723 45%

[Gary Maxwell]

Ordi

Where did you get that? Its not on the Ga Sec of State's website. I cant imagine that the Sec of State would be behind, they are the source for everyone, on an unofficial basis until a certication process is complete.

[David]

Dude, inspect your roof. Or better yet, have a roofer inspect your roof. Then find out what your deductible is for hail damage. I had my house hailed on and never thought about it until 6 weeks later when we put it on the market to sell. The prospective buyer's inspector failed the roof. It was "totaled" but to be honest, I would have never recognized the damage at all!

PS - my insurance agent admitted, "Oh yeah, there were several homes on your block that had claims". There is no chance they would advise you to inspect.

[ordi]

Gary,

I got it from the TV station WSBTV online.

wsbtv

[Gary Maxwell]

Ga Sec of State now has 59 % of precincts in and McKinney up by leass than 500 votes. Nowhere near enough to avoid a runoff. Just depends on which precincts are left to report. If Southern DeKalb that would favor McKinney. If elsewhere, she might finish 2nd or at the outside chance, Johnson could get 50.1.

[ordi]

David is correct. Check your roof. Insurance Co. in the midwest usaully pay for the entire roof to be reshingled. It is a cottage industry in the midwest.

[ordi]

Gary,

I use to go to the SOS exclusively but in big elections those sites get to clogged, so I do a search on local TV stations and go there to get the updates. You should see me on election night! I usually have 5 or 6 TV station pulled out from all across the country, not to mention the SOS from across the US of A.

[Gary Maxwell]

Well with 66% reported McKinney now leads by just over 200 votes. Most of the remaining precincts are in DeKalb Co. Unknown if its her Southern DeKalb strongholds or not.

[ordi]

Going to be a squeaker with OT!

[Nathan Clark]

"And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great." - Revelation 16:21

[jerry]

I'd say it means some higher being has become aware of human events and isn't entirely happy about it.

Either that or Someone is suggesting that we humans mix up some drinks and set in for a long battle.

[ordi]

Jerry,

I'm in for the drinks!

[larwyn]

OT?
Perhaps not, just more insanity that fits in perfectly with McKinney and room service from a Generous Spirit.

Mac links to this post by Debbie Schlussel, an excerpt:

Many of the 7,000 plus Detroiters in Lebanon are active in Dearborn's Bint Jbeil cultural center (the Lebanese American Heritage Club also features mostly Hezbollah fans). Bint Jbeil is a Hezbollah-dominated city in the South of Lebanon, a frequent destination of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who is very at home there. Bint Jbeil is a frequent source of shellings on Northern Israel. Bint Jbeil natives now living in our country so strongly support Hezbollah that they got Republican Congressman Joe Knollenberg (and his then top staffer, Paul Welday) and then-U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham to give Hezbollah forces in Southern Lebanon about $86 million of our tax money, no strings.

Given this information, and the fact--as I've detailed numerous times on this site--that several Shi'ite Muslim Lebanese U.S. citizens from Dearborn have been indicted and/or convicted of laundering money to Hezbollah, is it a good idea to rush to bring 25,000 such persons back to the U.S. at a time when Hezbollah is at war against the strongest U.S. ally? Does the fact, that Hezbollah numerous times--and especially now--has announced veiled and not-so-veiled intentions to attack Americans on U.S. soil, necessitate urgently bringing these terror-sympathizing Americans back to U.S. soil? Many are individuals whose activity should have mandated prosecution and jail-time. But they are free because of a spineless U.S. Attorney (and, incredibly, Bush Federal Court of Appeals nominee), Stephen Murphy III a/k/a "Abu Porno," and equally weak federal law enforcement chiefs of Michigan FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who pander to them.These are people who hold U.S. citizenship but support a group that murdered over 300 U.S. Marines and civilians, some through torture; a group that is part of the Al-Qaeda network; a group that trains insurgent terrorists against our troops in Iraq, giving them IEDs to blow our soldiers up; a group that worked with Qaeda to bomb the Khobar Towers. Americans who support this group are not American. They merely possess the proper paperwork.And they are very dangerous. One of them, Lola Elzein--a student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and an officer of the Hezbollah-supporting Arab American PAC--threatened my life and that of my family members because I've written about the group's Detroit-area extremist Hezbollah sympathizers. Hezbollah's violence has already arrived in America, and we don't need to pay to transport 25,000 of its sympathizers back to our shores from their chosen vacation destination.While the government has announced it will charge these individuals for the expensive transport out of Lebanon via Cyprus back to the U.S.,

I am wondering if these people all had round trip tickets, will they now get the windfall of refunds???

It is now less than 2 months until the 5th anniversary of 911. Well, at least we will have all of their names and ID's in case some decide to pool their airline refunds for some celebratory fertilizer.

Sadly, the DEMS now have another effective weapon - the word KATRINA!

Works for the race card, the class card and for the "slow response" card.

What makes this even a worse move is that STATE was warning against traveling to Lebanon before any of this began.

Thanks Pelosi and the gang for spending almost $25,000,000 to keep
Michigan in the Blue.

[Extraneus]

I'm rooting for McKinney. The seat is going to the Democrats anyway, and I see no reason not to encourage the Democrats to showcase their most entertaining talent in races like these. Republicans should be contributing to her campaign fund, criticizing her detractors as racists, and if she wins recommending her for the most important committee assignments possible.

[Dwilkers]

That's fairly impressive hail. About as large as anything I see here in southeast Texas.

The largest hail I ever personally experienced was in Austin Texas about 12 years ago. Totaled my wife's Honda Accord. It was maybe the size of a golf ball, broke the windshield and dimpled the entire car with dents.

Why do we use fruit and sports comparisons for hail size anyway? Why not a simple diameter? I've always felt weathermen and others exaggerate this.

I'm 48 and I've never seen 'baseball' sized hail. I've heard weathermen talk about grapefruit sized hail. Yeah right.

A round block of solid ice the size of a baseball falling from 30,000 feet? Gotta be extremely rare - if ever. I suspect such a hail storm would result in a large number of outright deaths from impacts on people. My bet would be a baseball sized hailstone at terminal velocity would penetrate the average roof, ceiling and break a glass topped coffee table in the living room.

Oh, 102 F here yesterday, 80% humidity. Nasty hot.

[cathyf]

I'm 48 and I've never seen 'baseball' sized hail.

We had some in Iowa in the spring. Complete with pictures of hailstones and baseballs next to them.

My daughter and I went to girl scout camp, and some of the counselers are foreign college students. We asked the girl from the Czech Republic about her impressions of America, and she said the most unexpected thing was the storms. I laughed and said, "Imagine the first time Europeans looked over the plains saw a tornado. They must have thought that it was the end of the world!"

cathy :-)

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Those Damn Yankees! Posada was out, the rain get in the umpire's eyes?

[Appalled Moderate]

FYI, Cynthia McKinney faces a runoff. Turnout for those are usually sparse, but since McKinney generates such strong opinions (both for and against), it's hard to call. If Cynthis had only one oponent, she would have lost. People in the primary were voting against her, not for the opponents.

FYI, Ralph Reed lost his primary bid to be Lt. Governor. His opponent -- Cagle -- is jst as conservative and religious, without all the corruption and simple yetch factor.

And, by the way, it's supposed to be 100 here in Atlanta today. Bletch.

[Tom Bowler]

So what does it mean?

It means we're all going to die from explosive Global Warming! Hailstones that size are proof positive there's an imminent threat! And if they melted, well that seals it! Tell me, did they?

[Neo]

We had a storm and some hail in PA last night (4PM 99F, 7PM 69F), but the best was a few years ago when the stuff was pounding on the door. Sounded like someone was outside throwing baseballs at the front door.

After watching the stuff bounce off the ceiling windows for a while I retreated to the center of the house just in time to hear the din of the storm go up dramatically. The cars got dented and even the vinyl house siding was damaged in a multitude of places. Neighbors will aluminum siding were all getting it replaced by the insurance cos.

[clarice]

The storm never made it here last night.

OTOH I am sure I saw a buzzard out back in the late afternoon and I have never seen that before..

[Dwilkers]

See? Its hot everywhere.

Damn that Bush.

[JohnH]

It's 79 here in downtown Los Angeles. Why don't you all come out here and chill?

[Gary Maxwell]

By the way f you have not seen it, Cynthia McKinney spent the evening screening a Documentary "American Blackout" with Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin ( of Code Pink). Crockumentary might be a better description. Socialist is too kind a word for this flock.

She is in a runoff and 55% of her district said no to McKinney yesterday. We will see how the Deomocrats react but with little bit in funds Johnson should be able to make some progress with middle class blacks when they see Code Pink and Cindy Sheehan hangin with Cindy.

[Trickish Knave]

Ahh, it took some scrolling down but I finally found the global warning entry. I'm glad it was in jest.

Having been here in Hawaii for 14 years I would almost welcome some hail.

[windansea]

hey Dwilkers

batter up!