Count down to patient lawsuits from the flying glass in the hospital. Lawyers suck.

For those who care....

About 6:45 pm CST last night, I and my SO watched the clouds gathering after a dinner date with my father and his wife. (For father's day.) By the time we got home, the air ride sirens had gone off.

The funnel, which was clearly visible inside Amarillo, wasn't the conical shaped thing you're familiar with, but was still pretty scary to see. About 20 minutes after the 'wall cloud' (it looks like a giant ass in the sky) passed overhead, the hail started. This is what caused 99% of the damage in town. It bashed windows out the hospital, knocked holes in signs, knocked all the skylights out of the shopping mall, etc. I saw a lot of minor damage like that when I drove to work this morning.

I have one hailstone in my freezer now that landed in the grass on my lawn. It's about the size of a softball.

The most 'tornado' damage was done south of town in the series of trailer parks between Amarillo and Canyon, TX. Big surprise there. We've heard of lots of minor injuries, but no deaths.

The most dramatic thing that happened was people getting into wrecks on I27 after hail-stones punctured thier windshields.

Lebowski78..........God really hates New Yorkers!!

Ditto Relax... just making a joke which from the view of this thread is old and busted anyway. Cali is huge too and they just get fires, earthquakes, and the Santa Ana.

/New Yorker. Just pigeons and rats here...

I wasn't taking offense. My statment was more addressed at the masses than anything else.

My mom's little VW convertible was torn to shreds. And my brother's house lost all the windows on the north side, so did one of the major hospitals. Crazy night indeed.

MixMasterMadge, Hey! I'm not the one getting smited with huge floods and giant hail now am I? thptptptptptpt

Dman33

Actually we in Amarillo had two earthquakes this year. There is a fault line northwest of here, and two dormant volcanoes within 4 hours of us, which technically makes them in New Mexico, but we're still downwind. Texas is hell.

My in-laws house (five or so blocks from the Ford dealership mentioned) had nearly all its north-facing windows blewed out and asploded.

Driving through that neighborhood this morning, it is kind of odd to see all the broken windows...since there are no other signs of devastation, it looks like someone just went on a highly accurate rock-throwing spree.

(Which, I guess someone did. God. With...ice rocks.)

I felt a twinge of satisfaction seeing a Range Rover with a blown out back window. (What, you can't find time to put your Range Rover in the garage?)

The best part of the night was the weathermen continually warning people to get back home - apparently the storm drew people not into their homes, but rather onto the highways to get a glimpse. Nice. Maybe Darwin had something there.

Scary: one storm chaser reported driving down I-27, observing a mini-van next to him when a hailstone crashed through their windshield. Blood ensued.

A fun night for those of us who sustained no damage. There's nothing surreal-er than when all the air around you turns green, things are calm, and the warning sirens are blaring. It's like you're in your own movie.

Starring Bill Paxton as you.

Oh, and one more note. This came the same day that our resident eccentric Stanley Marsh celebrated the 30th anniversary of Cadillac Ranch. Two of the things we're known for - weather and buried cars - in one day!

WTF?!?!?! There are others from AMA on here. Damn people make yourselves known, I might buy ya a beer.

rotkiv: I'm a lawyer from Texas. You and bludstone are gonna incur some whoop ass.

Yeah, I am kind of surprised at all the Amarilloans crawling out from under the mattresses. I hereby make myself known, judasmachine. Though I am reluctant to actually meet people from online communities - I "hosted" a gathering of Amarillo.com forum users a couple of years ago, and you've never seen a more unsavory group of people. (Including me, I suppose.) :)

Holy Farkus what is this? Strange weather in Texas? I have lived in the Great State of Texas all my life. The only baseball sized hail I ever see is coming off of Ranger pitching at the Ballp...er Ameriquest Field in Arlington.

Although no reports of Tornadoes in LA, there is reports of Shaq sized hail raining down in Dallas. I for one am going to duck and cover.

"It's God's fault! Get Him!"

shuey

yeah actually i'm 1 of 4 when it comes to meeting people from the internet. so yeah it makes me hesitant too. i guess that was kneejerk reaction. however the meetup.com thing worked out well. that was where i met the one interesting person, the rest were all trolls, and people who lack a few social skills to say the least.

I try to be polite at a movie theatre but, OMG, there were scenes in "Day After Tomorrow" that I could not help but laugh at...

Mr. Vice President, if we don't sign the Kyoto Treaty, we're all going to DIE!!!

I've never seen the air so clear.

Thank you, third world countries, for coming to our aid.


Pfft! Next time I am warned that a movie is an environmentalist whine piece, I'll remember to pass no matter how fun the effects look. That's two hours of my life wasted.

Sounds like Robertson better have another talk with God. That stuff, along with earthquakes, tornados, plagues of locust, etc, were supposed to hit Orlando when Disney started treating gays like human beings.

Amazing, Farkers can turn a hailstorm into a religious flamewar.

/ok, it's not a flamewar, but it could be, considering all the religion posts.

Not in Amarillo, I'm stuck in Pampa, I went and stood in the hail last night, but it's only funny if I'm alive.

We had nearly golf ball sized hail here, thirty minutes north of New Yawk a few weeks ago. If I could get a reliable image host, I'd post some pictures.

Pounded the hell out of the cars. And tore right through the Umbrella on the deck.

I can remember some scary-ass weather when I was a kid in West Texas (Midland).

Hail, tornadoes, gales, dust devils.

Not to mention tumbleweeds, roadrunners, and horny toads.

Just imagine the dollar amount of that happening at Texas Motor Speedway on nascar cup day.

/beats submitter with soccer ball sized hail we get in nebraska

There is internet access in Amarillo now? Maybe I should move back, I miss the weather.

On the left 'baseball-sized' hail.
On the right a 1927 gelatin silver print titled: Babe Ruth [Hand holding baseball]

I would point out that if the 3 1/4" measurement were to human scale then Babe Ruth would be about 2 1/2' tall and hail would indeed be as large as 'baseball-sized'.

Now chakalakasp knows what 'baseball-sized' is.

/nitpicking mode

Yep.. I see all of the amarillo farkers rear their heads for this one...

My house did not get the baseballs, but I know plenty of people that did. A wireless network dish blew itself off the roof of my office and was hanging by it's antenna cable. I had to go up on the roof (in the lightning and on the tallest building within about 1mile -- eek) before it came through my office window. The wind was really slamming it against the glass and with 70mph+ it would have certainly broken it.

I know a lot of people with broken windows, damaged cars, damaged roofs, etc. Hail like this happens every year, though, so it's really not suprising. Sometimes it's softball to soccer ball sized though, and that is even worse because it starts going THROUGH your roof!

A few weeks ago when a tornado went through Indianapolis I looked out my back window just in time to see the thing pass by. Came within about half a mile of my house. There was a bright purple flash as thing took out a transformer. Of course I had no camera.

That makes two tornados in two years that have come within a mile of my house.

I was at the local Barnes and Noble in Amarillo when the sirens went off. My finace and I started home, and we got a quick glimpse of the twister swirl up some dirt before the hail started. I got a nice softball size smash in my windshield before we got to a gas station to wait out the big stuff... after the larger hail ended we headed home and found two of our bedroom windows smashed and about 40 other cars that were parked at our apartment building were minus windows.

I'm originally from Maine and this was my first real West Texas storm... wasn't very fun.

pocket ninja,

To where? I could move out to the Plains and be in the middle of Tornado Alley instead of on the edge. The southeast coast where there are hurricanes. Where does one even begin with the natural disasters in California? Everyplace has their own natural disasters.

Why does hail hate America?

No offense, but I'll take natural disasters over DC summers anyday.

I was in Amarillo last night, but most of the east side where I was missed the fun of being beaned by hail. I had to go south through the storm to go home, so I just followed it along the way. The hail was pretty isolated. I had to go back later to board up windows in my brother's house (while he is on vacation). (Dog didn't seem happy, either) He (bro) came out better than his neighbor, who is in Vegas. He lost two big skylights and his relatives had no keys to get into the house. If you're flying over today, look for the house with the two big blue tarps.

Beautiful day today, as per usual. The "pothandle" of Texas has a reputation for wild weather, but all in all, it's mighty fine, says I.

What can you say?

Texas is a magnet for shiat.

I live just about on I-40 and Western here in Amarillo, we got larger than golfball size hail and many neibors got smashed windows. No smashed windows here but the trees were shreded.

caiteach: Michigan has some cold winters, but never any real disasters, as long as you stay out of the deeper parts of Detroit.

How is this scary? Tornados and baseball size hail show up of the time, especially in the Midwest and in Texas.

Weak tag.

Being a Texan, it is not unheard of to get very large hail, despite the warm weather.

my favorite:



More photos here (new window)

The Hooters was destroyed!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Okay, a few windows were knocked out. And I haven't been to Hooters in years. But still and all.

We've had tornadoes here in Los Angeles before...one such tornado destroyed part of the Convention Center during the big storm of 1983. And not too long ago there was a twister sighted in Long Beach though it didn't touch down.

With all the farkers here in Amarillo we should have a fark party!!!

Who's to blame?

NCAR scientist Nancy Knight holds a hailstone that fell in Coffeyville, Kansas, in 1970. The largest hailstone ever documented, it weighs 0.75 kilograms (1.67 pounds), and spans 14.4 centimeters (5.67 inches).

There have been 7 inch + stones reported, but not verified.



and of course here....