Tag Archives: rain storm

August 10, 2020

Hail, Yes! (redux)

By Wyrd Smythe

Way back when (over eight years ago!) I shared a picture of some wild hail. Last night another big boomer passed through the Twin Cities, and the hail was the biggest I’ve personally yet experienced:

Apparently some folks got baseball-sized hail. (I saw a picture in a local news article — hail stone side by side with a baseball. That would do some serious damage. The stones I was getting were plenty loud as it was!)

I just had to step outside (in my underwear) and grab a few of the bigger ones. Stuck them in my freezer. Maybe I’ll actually put them in a soda or something. (Or just take them out and admire them once in a while.)

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For a couple of hours, it was quite a lightning show. No major ground strikes around me (and thankfully no power outages like a few weeks ago). I do love it when the lightning never stops — constant electrical activity!

I just love weather!

Stay safe, my friends! Wear your masks — COVID-19 is airborne!

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4 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Life

July 22, 2020

Weather Wow

By Wyrd Smythe

It’s been a while since the last Wednesday Wow. Life got strange the last several months; every day had some sort of real life wow. (Not that we’re out of these weird woods by any stretch.) It made ephemera like this fall by the wayside.

But we must soldier on, one foot in front of the other. Speaking of which, on this morning’s walk, at 6:30 (AM, of course), it was 59° (Fahrenheit, of course). We had a heat advisory Saturday — temps in the high 90s with equally high dew points.

That’s one beauty (and insanity) of Minnesota: the weather!

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10 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Wednesday Wow

December 4, 2013

S’no Power, S’no Kidding!

By Wyrd Smythe

snowDateline: Monday. The little-known eclectic blogger, Wyrd Smythe, had no idea that his blogging provider, a mysterious global enterprise known as “Word Press” (a possible anagram for “Sword Reps”), had granted him extreme power over the weather. At this time, we cannot report whether this was a deliberate seasonal gift, or if the power somehow escaped the control of its owners. Neither can we report on how many this may affect.

What we do know is this: On Monday, when the unsuspecting blogger clicked the “Let It Snow” checkbox on his settings page, sure enough, a gentle snow fall began on his posts. That was the desired and expected effect. What happened next, however, was a surprise.

It also began to snow outside for the first time this season!

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15 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Life

June 19, 2012

Hail, Yes!

By Wyrd Smythe

Now, this is what I call a hail stone!

I’ve seen pictures of similar spiky monsters, but this is the first time I’ve seen one in person!

I obtained this scary specimen a few weeks ago during one of our mid-western torrential rain storms. I’m a big fan of weather, especially serious weather. There wasn’t a great deal of electrical activity—lightning is my second favorite weather feature.  (Oh,… thanks for asking: fog!  It reminds me of those days in college hanging out in the girls’ dormitory. The college was on the sea coast, so fog was common.  Ever since, I’ve always found fog to be … sexy!)

Anyway, it (the rain storm, not the girls’ dormitory) was one of those downpours where at times you can’t see more than ten yards.  I was standing outside, under the eaves, watching when I noticed white objects bouncing several inches high on the street. Another second, and they were bouncing off the lawn and sidewalk in front of me.  Hail!  (Hail! Rock & Roll!)  Serious hail!

When I saw their size and shape, I had to venture out and grab one.

Pretty cool, eh?

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Life