Hail and Wind

Hey, Michigan finally got a turn! Our sirens went off twice last night, at 4:30, right after Riley got off the bus, and at 5:30, just before Shannon's T-Ball game was scheduled to start. The first sirens came with a few semi-wicked clouds and an obvious cold front with somewhat accelerated winds. I was watching in the street the entire time, but there was no obvious rotation or anything. A quick two-minute rain spurt sent me inside, where the boys were oblivious to any meteorological happenings and happily playing video games and watching cartoons.

Then Ken came home... he wanted to chase but everything had been winding down, the last phase set to hit our area soon. He cranked the local news, turned on a radio to the weather reports, and had the kids in a stir in no time. The reports were showing the storm's approach, and we watched for it outside. Obvious bands of rain were coming down nearby and heading right for us, and the wind picked up noticeably. At about 5:30, we watched from the front storm door as the rain intensified and the ping-ping of hail started to occur.

Mommy was all excited and Daddy was keeping his ear out for the TV reports and hoping for something interesting. All at once, the hail was a little more than a ping, the winds turned the rain horizontally, visibility dropped to zero, and the sirens went off. Dang. Somebody had to take the boys to the basement, and that fell to me. We were all content until the radio started saying "Tornado Warning, Tornado Warning" and started doing the "This is not a test..." Then the lights flickered, the TV lost power and came back on with a beep... beep... beep... With the public service warning blaring, Corey came unglued. Ken yelled for the all clear at the same time and Riley came unglued as well.

The next half-hour was spent calming the boys, trying to get them to eat on nervous stomachs, and insisting that Shannon quit scaring his brothers by mentioning storms, tornadoes and lightning. Finally, I went out to survey the damage to the yard and snap some pictures. Here's the hail and my sad, sad flowers, the big downfall to exciting weather:

Hail. It stuck around for over an hour after the storms moved on.

More hail. The bigger pieces were nickle sized.

Hard to see, but my big bushes were decapitated in a perfectly straight line, excluding the portions that had been smashed into the ground.

Here's my Cat-mint that I'd been so proud of before the storm.

My Cat-mint after the storm. Bummer.

Then we decided to check out the neighborhood to see what else may have been messed up. Let me mention that these trees always looked weak and sickly, so it really wasn't much of a surprise...

Heather's house. House across from Heather's.

Did I mention that the homeowner's girlfriend suggested he not park directly under this tree as she knew storms were rolling in? He moved it to the end of the driveway, the storms hit, and this was their near miss. Good thinking, girlfriend! Actually there's two downed trees in there. And that was the worst of it.