Hail Storms in Raleigh, NC... nada going on in tropics...

Well that was fun....

On the way home from Fresh Market today we saw a line of storms moving in, cloud to cloud lightening off in the distance. In about fifteen minutes it got dark, very dark and a fast check of the radar showed a line developing just to the north of me.

I opened the window a bit to listen and a few minutes later I heard what sounded like a train, off in the distance. Never a good sign when you see a line like that coming through. I thought I must be imagining it so I went outside on the front porch and the sound got louder, closer...not a train but something. The tall trees in the yard were going wild, moving about in all directions...swirly sort of as we say. Not a sense of straight line winds, the air was funny. Been there before, knew it was about to hail. Extremely close by lighting strikes, wind and big, big rain drops that immediately gave way to large chunks of hail flying about in all directions (usually a sign there is some rotation in the clouds above) and covering the ground fast.  Hard to explain the newbie what "violent" hail is vs regular, run of the mill  hail. It's BIG chunks, that look like some biblical plaque being unleashed on the land. They come at odd angles and smack the ground hard, bouncing up and away for a few feet in all directions. This went on a long time, 3..4...5 minutes until it slowed down to "regular hail" that was rounded in nature and fell straight down with a softer impact, golf ball sized at times...quarter times at other times. It was coming down so hard even I wouldn't run out into it ...especially as lightning was close by and very loud.

By the time I picked them up...they were larger than a quarter and smaller than a golf ball. A few really big golf balls were picked up though they melted fast in the afternoon 103 degree heat... funky. My stepdaughter asked just why I was putting it in the freezer.... ummmm cause we always do that. Of course I stood there holding it in my skirt like I was picking cotton or something.

And, then after about 7 minutes of so it moved on...slowed down. Very little rain, mostly hail.

Ice cold hail on a seriously hot, humid day.  Triple digit heat, with a heat index above 105 and ice cold hail melting fast in my hand.

Wild.

Really wild.

Good pics being sent in online:

http://www.wral.com/weather/image_gallery/11269728/

And, one thing I will say about Raleigh is it's nice having the Cable Company's News/Weather on the Ones stay with weather round the clock until the threat is over. They do cover weather well here. It's just not the same as home. But, for a weather fan.... being able to watch it live or every ten minutes on the "ones" is a hoot. They did a bang up job today in live time.

The line moved south causing even larger hail on it's way out towards the ocean. Some isolated reports of possible tornadoes.

Got to tell you.... I love hail.

When I was little, maybe the third grade... we had a hail storm in Miami that was so heavy that it covered the school yard with the illusion of snow, well icy snow... well as close to snow as I was getting obviously. Been true love ever since. I do admit, I have never seen hail storms that destroyed crops or injured people severely..though I do have one son who was a bit of a hail magnet.

Juxtaposition of the very warm day and the very cold hail.

Again, I really do believe someone along the East Coast is going to deal with a direct hit by a Tropical System this year, late summer...early fall. And, wondering if Fall comes early this year?

A rush.... yes... especially for a storm chaser to suddenly out of nowhere deal with such a storm.

Weather IS history in the making. And, weather always affects economics.

So, though it looks like I won't be seeing any tropical storms in South Florida for the rest of the month or the next few weeks... while here in Raleigh I did get to see "wild weather" and that's cool, or not however you look at it. Always interesting to witness history in the making and this Southeast/Mid-Atlantic Hot Spell IS historic and wondering what happens next.

In Miami.... my kids were rocking to the sounds of Maroon 5 at the Fountainbleau last night.

A beautiful place... I love Miami. So do my kids. They got good taste when it comes to how to spend a Saturday Night.

http://www.fontainebleau.com/web/nightlife

Nothing like that here, but hey I got to watch a wild hailstorm... works for me :)

I've had my proms at the Fountainebleau... lazy afternoons on a summer day or playing pin ball downstairs back in the 80s. I still prefer eating outside by the beach at the Eden Roc or the Ritz, but still the Fountainebleau is the Fountainebleau.. it's the bar for extravagance on Miami Beach. 

Glad Hurricane Andrew spared Miami Beach more damage... we had plenty mind you but... glad it was spared and hope it gets spared for years to come.

Besos Bobbi

Tropical Wave went poof....

It's there but not as compelling as it was two days ago... keep watching: