Severe Weather

This was a bad week for weather. I should learn to be more tuned into watching the weather channel or looking at weather.com because it always seems as if the inclement weather sneaks up on me. 



This past Friday the weather caught us off guard again while L and I were on a date night. We had gone out for some sushi and as you probably imagined from past experiences we were going to head over to Target once again after dinner to do some quick shopping. Why that has become or normal date routine I am not exactly sure. It just seems that when you have a chance to head to the store and not be trying to control a toddler as you walk through the aisles, that just seems to be the right time to go. The only time that happens is when we are on a date, so... 

Well, this date night we were eating when my sister called. My sisters and parents tend to worry about us. They know that with T around we don't really get to watch "normal" television programs. When T.V. is on we have it on Noggin or Disney Channel depending on which has the most appropriate show for some one under seven years old. Unfortunately those channels do not give us weather warnings like a regular local station would. Because of this they call anytime they see a weather warning on TV to make sure we know about it. It's like having our own back up system in place. Anyway, she called to tell us there were tornado warnings and severe weather warnings for our area. 

We ate quickly so we could get out to the car and listen to the radio. All the warnings were for the towns we had to go through to get back home. We could see clouds along the horizon and thought we could beat them home. We were wrong. A short time into the drive we hit the storm. Rain, then heavy rain, and then hail. The warning was saying watch out for hail up to golf ball size in diameter. Just what we needed, golf ball size hail. Well, the hail was only pea sized so far but hitting the car hard, like gravel being thrown at us from evil clouds. We talked it over and decided the best thing to do was find cover. There was a gas station in the next town. We would head for that. We were not that far, but with the severe conditions it was hard to drive over 20 miles per hour. The ride took forever and we were paranoid the whole way. Finally we arrived at the gas station. It was obvious that other drivers had the same idea. The overhang was crowded with cars, except for one spot which we managed to move into. Most of the car was under cover, except for the back end. On that part we could still hear the constant barrage of hail hitting the car like machine gun fire. 

After a few minutes of hanging out we finally heard the hail stop and just the heavy rain was beating down on us. We looked out at the ground to see it was covered with a white layer of hail. My wife looked out her door and said, "Wow, look at that... Oh never mind. That really is a golf ball! What are the odds of that?" I was cracking up so hard. After all that stress of trying to get safe, and all the talk on the radio about golf ball sized hail, what are the odds of opening your door and actually seeing a golf ball laying there at your feet? Just hilarious! 

Having a nice laugh felt good. The rain let up enough where I could see ahead of me far enough to drive the rest of the way home. We arrived home to find our house and family were safe. My parents and sisters houses were without power however. Tornadoes had hit their area and knocked down trees and power lines. They had power again by Saturday night, so all things ended well for them and us. Hope everyone else is safe from the storms in the South East this past week end. Best wishes to everyone as the storms continue to move through the area day after day. Stay safe, Summer isn't that far away and we will be able to get back to talking about the drought again.