We had a storm last night just about the time we were getting ready to go to bed. Before I closed the computer down for the night, I could see heat lightning in the sky and so, thank goodness, I not only closed down the computer but unplugged all the equipment.By the time I got over to the bedroom the constant flashing of the lightning was rolling around in the sky and the thunder was a constant rumble. The temperature dropped rapidly. First we heard a few pings of hail on the sky lights and then it came in a deafening roar. You have heard people say that a tornado sounds like a freight train coming at you, maybe this wasn't that bad but it was loud enough that the phone rang and I was standing by it and I could barely hear it. Ned and I were shouting at each other to be heard.
We have two glass skylights and the top on the bay window in the bedroom is glass. We expected to have them broken at any second they were being hit so hard by marble size hail. We closed the curtains in the bedroom and moved Taylor to safety away from windows and skylights. We moved the birds off the portico because the wind was blowing hail and rain in on it. Ned stood under the portico and kept sweeping hailstones and leaves away from the drain where it was stopping any flow of water. If he stopped sweeping the patio would start to fill with water again because the rain was coming down in buckets. It seems like this went on for an hour but it was probably more likely 15 minutes. After the violent weather, we had rain for most of the night.
First thing this morning we surveyed the damage.
The squash took the hardest hit in the terrace veggie garden. The leaves are peppered with holes. The beans look surprisingly okay.
A few leaves of the chard look like hell but for the most part it survived.
But the patio is completely covered with leaves from the lugustrum tree. The poor tree was beaten by the hail. 
And once again the poor canna plant that we count on for a tall foundation in the back of the raised bed behind the fountain looks like hell. We'll have to cut it back to the ground and wait for it to recover.
Today the sun is out. It is a beautiful day.
7 comments:
What a shame about your plants. I'm glad to hear that all is well otherwise. Hopefully, they will grow back quickly.
I haven't experienced hail here in La Ceiba, but I've that San Pedro Sula gets it occasionally. I can't remember ever having a car that wasn't hail dented in Dallas!
Geez, and you just got done showing us how beautiful everything was doing too. Good thing I guess because we now have before and after pictures.
I read that GANGS entry a while back and totally agreed with him. I think what he meant was that you are normal in a way good way. Certainly not boring. Case in point...you used the word HELL twice in this post and you never swear!
Oooh, so sorry about the damages! I am glad that the window you mentioned is still intact. But after all the care and cutlivating, it's hard to see the plants take the hit. We have had storms in Worcester almost daily for the last few weeks, sometimes they seem very strange and ominous, but so far no devastating damage. AND I forgot to reply to your freworks question- I left the Holga shutter open for several seconds for each shot, but I didn't really time it. Good guesses, though! Erika
Oh how sad. Your plants the previous post or so were so beautiful. But you know what, the pictures you took of them, the before and even the after are also beautiful. So at least some of your greens were saved and of course the beans. It must have been an exciting evening. Hasta la vista.
Yes it was an exciting evening. I was nervous about tonight as well. We had a cloud and some thunder and rain but nothing compared to last night. We swept up 2 garbage bags of leaves in the patio.
Billie - Exciting weather these days - Julian had an earthquake in So Cal today and last weekend it flooded like crazy in our town in New Mexico.
Have you had this kind of storm there before this?
Maybe you need to have a cover system for your deck plants.
Stay Safe,
Juan
Juan, Last year we had a fast moving storm come through one afternoon in July that brought us hail and then again one that was very similar to this one sometime in the Fall. We still had ice/hail in the patio the next morning. So while they are unusual they are not unknown.
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