There was a wee little hailstorm in Oklahoma City about ten days ago, and I managed not to hear much about it until today (my cave is very, very deep). I recall seeing one photo on the national news, a car that looked like about 10 cannonballs had been tossed through its back window. But of course the storm hit more than that one parking space.
As it happened, the epicenter of the hailstorm was the part of town where most of my relatives live. And they sustained a bit of property damage, it seems. My sister tossed out some numbers:
Her house (a sprawling ranch, with maximum roof exposure) — two skylights broken, roof totaled (second roof lost to hail in ten years)
Her kids’ cars — two had $3,000 damage, one had $16,000 damage, one totaled
Nephew’s house — 10 skylights broken, total damage about $60,000
And she referred me to the following video:
I found it reminiscent of some of those Dancing Waters shows in Vegas.
The national media, of course, don’t waste much time on little localized hailstorms. They fixate on video of Oklahoma’s Annual Tornado Ballet and Stormchasers Reunion. Despite the histrionics of reporters, tornadoes are old news to Okies, barely noteworthy if they aren’t taking aim on your house. It does, however, seem there have been more than usual this spring, and definitely more than usual raking Oklahoma City proper.
My sister, irrepressible as always, laughed about it all and said, “Yes, it’s been like the wrath of God. We’re expecting locusts next.”
I shall not complain, too much, about the Oregon rain again. That is crazy stuff.
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Makes Denver snow look pretty innocuous, too.