Hail!

We've had two days of crazy weather here in north Texas.

-On Monday, around 10am, the skies darkened and, if one hadn't known better, it looked like it was 8:30pm! Soon, dime-size hail rained down for a good ten minutes. I was, of course, at work, and feared for my car in the open parking lot. There was no big damage, but I know of at least one dent on the roof of my car.

-Last night, as Oklahoma City was dealing with mega tornadoes, we had our own scare. Around 7:45, after only a few rain drops, hail the size of ping-pong balls fell for a good ten minutes, hitting the windows with such force that I was sure they would shatter. Finally, it stopped and we went outside. The wind was crazy! For the next hour, we watched, transfixed on the back porch, as two storms went by, skirting our house....with swirling clouds. I've never seen anything like it. The clouds in the upper atmosphere were billowing upward while the ones below swirled closer to the ground. We didn't see any funnels but I've never seen anything closer to a funnel.

We lost power and had no internet for the duration of the storms. It was pretty scary.

An hour after the hail, when the creepy clouds had passed by, the tornado sirens finally went off for the first time. We had clear skies. This doesn't give me any confidence in our local emergency personnel.