Thursday, March 11, 2010

Extreme weather events you've experienced

They all mean global warming, of course. But what have you seen with your own eyes?

Me first (that's why I have a star in front of my handle in comments). I'll leave out the weird weather on various backpacking/river trips, and stuff I saw after the fact.

1. The D-a-W and me, walking the dog (only one at the time, now long dead) toward Sloan Lake, when we heard this roaring sound. We looked up the street, and there was a solid curtain of hail coming toward us. It was totally opaque, very loud, and advancing at about a block every few seconds. We hugged a tree, but D-a-W still got nailed big time by a couple hunks of golf-ball-size ice ripping through the branches and leaves. An old lady across the street was standing on her porch, gesturing for us to come over to safety. No way, but nice of her.

2. Standing on the south steps of the Capitol building. One big-ass tornado visible less than a mile to the east, another one to the west. They both did big damage, but the only death, IIRC, was a firefighter who fell through a roof.

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