While I have seen hail here once or twice before, it was nothing like what we had a couple of days ago. The previous times that we had storms which included hail, it only lasted a couple of minutes at most and the hail was very small.
This storm was different. The hail came down for nearly 30 minutes depending on exactly where you were reaching sizes as large as 2-inches in diameter. I know some have seen golf ball sized hail or larger but still, 2-inch chunks of ice falling from the sky for 30 minutes is a bit disconcerting...and damaging.
I happened to be driving from a doctor's office to a friend's house when the storm started. I caught most of it on my dashcam as well as part of it on a security cam at my destination.
The first video is from the security cam. It is motion activated so isn't necessarily constant. It also didn't last very long as the storm somehow killed the camera. Not sure how exactly. There was no physical damage. It just shut off in the middle of the storm and never came back on. It only covers a time range from about 3:37pm to 3:39pm.
Watch on rumble
The second video is from my dashcam. It is much longer and covers a time range from about 3:35pm to 3:56pm:
- 35 seconds in, the hail starts coming down
- 1:45 the hail is getting worse so I pull over, I looked for a place with cover but there wasn't really anything nearby. Trees don't help.
- 5:30 The hail hail finally stops so I start driving again 7:00 I was surprised power outages weren't more widespread but there was the occasional traffic light out
- 9:00 Turns out the storm wasn't over yet. It starts hailing again
- 10:05 I pull off into parking lot looking for cover again. Hail is getting larger.
- 12:15 Not much I can do but stop and wait it out
- 14:25 They start talking about the storm on the radio
- 15:15 The storm is finally ending, for good this time as it turns out. I start driving again.
- 19:35 As I get closer to my destination there is more and more hail on the ground...must have been worse there. It starts to look like snow on the ground. Only the temps are in the 80s (at least 27C). Nevertheless, there was enough ice on the ground that it stuck around for hours.
Watch on rumble
I ended up with a few small dents in my car. It could have been worse. Had my car been parked at my destination at the time of the storm it would have been. The black Ford Focus you see in the security cam video had dozens of dents in the hood.