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rick_mcdaniel

PJ, did you get hailed on?

rick_mcdaniel
16 years ago

The wife said Benbrook got the worst of it, last night, while I was in jewelry class.

There was a shower, in Farmer's Branch, but we hardly got wet in Lewisville.

Comments (14)

  • pjtexgirl
    16 years ago

    Nope,thankfully no hail here in my little section of Benbrook.I found out about hail in Benbrook when my DH got home and pulled my truck back in the garage. I'd just pulled it out for easy access to the trash cans for trash day! My DH said some of the hail was really big. PJ

  • sally2_gw
    16 years ago

    I heard on the news last night that they had baseball size hail just south of the lake. I thought of you, too, PJ. I'm glad you're okay.

    Sally

  • rick_mcdaniel
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    That's good. Glad it missed you. Have to always feel lucky, if you get through the storm season without any major damage, in Texas.

    For all the need for rain, I dread the storm season for the damage we get. Seems like you only get rain here, when it storms.....so, you are always at risk for tornadoes, hail, straight line winds, and other MN anger at Texas. Probably mad over all this lousy clay soil. (smile)

  • jolanaweb
    16 years ago

    We didn't hear anything about Benbrook specifically but we did hear around Llano they got 2" hail
    Glad you are okay PJ
    Yeah MN can be wicked, I'm still trying to rearrange plants that were seedlings when she tossed them all over the property a couple of years ago, lol

  • pjtexgirl
    16 years ago

    Thanks for thinking of me! I thought DH said baseballs!!! Holy guacamole!!! I am sure glad I missed that!!! Does anyone know if TX or OK get the most tornadoes? Just curious.
    I never heard of a straight wind until I came here to TX. I thought a tornado took out my neighbor's house but it turned out to me a straight wind.
    Jolana, I think MN likes you and just wanted to play around a bit! I don't think she liked the area she was throwing ice rocks at....PJ

  • rick_mcdaniel
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    There might be a good possibility of TX and OK having about an equal number of tornadoes. Haven't seen any figures on it, but I suspect someone has that info.

    The "straight winds" is a term for "we don't really want to call it a tornado", kinda like they don't call "dust devils" tornadoes, in California. In actuality, most storm damage comes from twisting and churning winds, not "straight line", as the term implies. Hurricanes are the exception, in that they do tend to be more like "straight line" winds, in one direction (at a time), although they actually have a circular motion.

    In reality, lots of strange effects occur in storm winds, such as the "wind shear" that pilots talk about, where there is a sudden, and strong, down draft, that in some cases, has been enough to literally flatten buildings.

    I have seen tornadoes in a great many places, myself, including Miami area, both on land and on the ocean. They can occur anytime/anywhere you get thunderstorms. The super cells are the worst, as they tend to spawn many twisters, and not just one or two.

    "Tornado Alley" actually covers the whole middle of the country, right up to the great lakes. My experience in mountain vs. plains areas, suggests that mountains tend to lessen the impact of severe weather, for whatever reason, while the plains tend to allow severe weather more frequently. I figure air currents are partly associated with that .

    Having seen the difference in various kinds of storms, tornadoes are, in my opinion, much more dangerous, as there is little or no warning. These days, you can see a hurricane coming for days in advance. Next most dangerous are tsunami's and storm surges associated with hurricanes, as the destructive force of water, is astounding, when coming in off the sea, or any very large lake.

    Probably the most impacting of all kinds of disasters, of course, are earthquakes and volcanoes, with volcanoes being the worst of the two.

    The most worrisome, happens to be island volcanoes, where it is possible that enough of a volcano could slip into the sea, to cause a tsunami of epic proportions, on top of the volcanic eruption itself.

    MN has lots of ways to remind us, we are rather puny creatures, after all.

  • pjtexgirl
    16 years ago

    Yup! we puny! LOL! Dust devils are dust devils in CA. It's just some swirling dust that kids play in given the chance(adults don't like dirt in their eyes,nose and mouth)
    In CA they call tornadoes,"tornado like winds" (the locals think that's silly BTW.)One across from my house back in the 80's took the roof off a storage place. We all thought it had been just the force of the wind but a dude from down here(tornado alley) saw it first hand. Another tornado that was recorded on film tore up someone's yard in Long Beach,CA. That one made it on the news.
    I gotta vote against blizzards for natural disasters. How do you heat your house with no electricity if you don't have a fireplace,wood burning stove or access to a generator? You're snowed in and can't even get out to go somewhere. The weight of the snow can crush in your roof. Then again getting blown to kingdom come by a volcano doesn't sound too swell either. Hmmm....

  • rick_mcdaniel
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Ya mean like the great Appalachian winter of 1960? The kids were sledding OVER the fences in the fields.

    There were a number of casualties that winter, among the poor in Appalachia.

    I was in Miami......busy with Hurricane Donna, that year. (Number 6 on the all time list.)

  • pjtexgirl
    16 years ago

    Wow!!! You've seen some action! Sledding OVER fences. Think I'll skip that ride!That is some deep snow. PJ

  • rick_mcdaniel
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    That most unreal weather was in Pirmasens, Germany. I watched it go from sunshine in a clear sky, to rain, sleet, and snow, and then back to sunshine in a clear sky, all in 20 minutes flat!

    In Bertchesgarten, Germany, they had 39 meters of snow, on the mountain. The entire mountain was covered in Rhime Ice.

    Arriving in Bremerhaven, on the North Sea, in February, after crossing the North Atlantic, I can't remember ever feeling as cold. It was midnight, and absolutely frigid.

    When I was commuting to work in Wisconsin one winter, there would be 6 inches of new snow on the ground every Sunday, as I flew in to Wisconsin Rapids (in a 19 passenger mosquito.)

    When I was a kid in Indiana, folks used to talk about tornadoes there, where broom straws would be imbedded in telephone poles, like nails.

    Yeah, I have managed to get around a little, in my life.

  • terryisthinking
    16 years ago

    How did Bev in Granbury fare? Bev - check in.
    My mom didn't get any damage.

  • remuda1
    16 years ago

    I'm not Bev, but here at my place (maybe 7-8 miles south of Bev's place), we got nothing but a huge light show. Not a drop of rain, but I'm not complaining. I did see on the news though, pictures from a Granbury resident of a funnel cloud between Granbury and Acton. Acton is just barely northeast of Granbury.

    Glad everyone escaped damage with this one....now pull out your blankies cause it's gonna get cold! Brrrr!

    Kristi

  • Bev__
    16 years ago

    I was walking my dogs and saw it come at us really fast. Just before we got to our driveway really big hard (they hurt) raindrops started. My pups tried to climb up my legs, so I picked them up and walked as fast as I could to the house. A couple minutes later the rain stopped and we got the light & sound show with wind. No damage.
    If I was still living in Minnesota I'd been thinking tornado sky. That weird green yellow color, but it didn't have that burned match smell like a tornado storm.

    Terri...thanks for thinking about us.

    After all the rain last week, the lake was a mess for several days. Looked like a logging camp was washing logs down the lake. The lake level was up....then down....then back up. The water was muddy brown till today (looks almost normal now). The crud washed into the water was awful, bags of trash, lots of syrofoam & plastic. Saw a few peopleless boats, water toys & things I couldn't figure out what they were float by too.

  • pjtexgirl
    16 years ago

    That's just plain scary Bev.PJ