What the Hail?

I have lived in Kansas for nearly all my life. The weather of this fine state is bewildering at best, and terrifying at its worst. Tonight, I had my first run-in with a super-sized Kansas hail storm. And I didn't like it.

Last spring, we had a hail storm come through Wichita and hit downtown causing astronomical damage. That may sound like an exaggeration, but it isn't. Baseball to softball-sized hail rained down for several minutes. It actually hit the minor league ballpark. While the team was playing. With spectators in the stands. Luckily, no one was hurt, but there was damage done to cars and buildings, etc. At the time, my wife and I joked saying, "Too bad we couldn't have run down there to the hail hit one of the cars. Maybe we'd be able to total it out and get a new one." Funny stuff at the time. . . .at the time.

Tonight, I'm singing a different tune. I actually witnessed, in person, softball-sized hail. If you don't believe me, I have a couple in the freezer. What is most disturbing, is the amount of damage it caused. I had the pleasure (really?) of watching a storm rain down hail no smaller than a tennis ball for a full 15 minutes. It was insane.

I was feeding Allie and watching TV when I heard the hail start. I got up and looked out the window and saw some maybe golf ball-sized hail. I figured this might get a little interesting. I went and moved some things in the garage and opened the door so my wife could drive right in and avoid the hail. Then I went back to feeding Allie. A short time later, I heard a sound like someone had dropped a brick on my roof. Then another. Then another. I finally set Allie down in her Boppy and got up to go look out the door. I saw big hail. Then I heard glass breaking and realized that one of the windows in the back of the house had broken. I went to check it out. I got brave enough to stick my head out just a little, just enough so it was still under the eaves of the house. Then I heard another window break and decided it was time to take the girls to the basement. Then I noticed that the windshield of our Kia Optima appeared to have hail splattered on it. I was wrong, the windshield was broken. And as I watched, i saw it get broken again. At this point, it was way too late to go pull it into the garage.

As I watched all this unfold, it dawned on me that my wife and son still weren't back. I tried to call, but I couldn't get dialed out. I got a little frantic, because the last thing you'd want is your loved ones driving in hail that can break a windshield. The super hail continued to thump on the roof. I heard the tornado sirens go off, so I joined my girls downstairs. I tried to get my wife on the phone again and got through to her. She was at her mom's house. She was not more than 5 miles away from me and she was getting none of the storm we were facing. She got some hail, but nothing like what I was facing, or for as long a period of time. That is really the epitome of crazy Kansas weather.

Once things started to subside, my wife came home and we began to check out the aftermath. All said and done, the damage was pretty --well-- damaging. The roof had holes punched in it. The car. The windows. Multiple leaks inside. And my favorite...a hailstone broke through a solid 2x6 deck board. Just crashed right through it like it was nothing. It's was indeed the craziest weather I've ever seen. And I can tell you in all honesty, I don't want to go through that again.