What The Hail???

[sagehen]

on 9/12/08 10:23 AM, Doug Harris at cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET wrote:

> Might those 'baseball' stories have been originated by fishermen?
> dh
> Poster:       Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: What The Hail???
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>
>
> Common [Midwest] terms [for hail]: pea-, dime-, golfball-, and
> baseball-sized hail; although, it needs be said that baseball-sized hail was
> rarely reported live, but common
> in "big storm" stories.  Lawyers might further say that this list includes,
> but is not limited to, the above mentioned terms.
~~~~~~~~~~
I can testify to having seen & experienced baseball-sized hail.  There was a
great swath of storms that swept across the US from Texas to Michigan &
perhaps even into PA  on April 4, 1974, spawning many many tornadoes &
doing enormous damage.  We lived about a mile off its path & so only
suffered some of the milder effects.  I, all unawares, was driving an old
Chevy pick-up more or less parallel to the storm's path  when overtaken by a
hurricane-like rainstorm & hailstones that I was sure would break the
windshield. They did dent the hood. They came down by bucketfuls for several
minutes. The ground was covered with them.Our aluminum house roof  was
pocked  in many places.  We thought to save a few examples of these truly
baseball-sized  beauties & stuck them in our freezer.  We forgot that they
needed to be sealed & of course they sublimated in the dry air of the
freezer & eventually disappeared altogether.  Great souvenirs!  The lasting
souvenirs were scraps of building materials & household goods that rained
down for hours after the storm had passed, sad remains of houses utterly
destroyed in nearby Xenia OH, the town worst hit in the whole country.
AM

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