Here, on June 7, 2009, we have an extreme weather event in Fort Collins, Colorado. Hailstorms seem to happen about once a year here, and when they do, fun is had by no-one.
Most of today’s hailstones are definitely as big as peas. Some are the size of hominy kernals (not grits) and some approach the size of chickpeas. When they land on the grass, they bounce like fleas, or popping corn.
The local university had a hailstorm study called COCORAHS. People used styrofoam slabs wrapped with tin foil to preserve the impact profiles of hailstones that fell in their area. The program may not still be going on.
The land needs the moisture, sure, but not in this format. All over town, people are assessing the damage to their gardens, trees, cars, and (although hopefully, not too many of these) their outdoor animals. I’d worry about the homeless, but they seem to have been pretty well driven out of town the past few years.
I’m sure glad this didn’t happen yesterday, when the Gay Pride festival was going on in Old Town. Imagine what some mindsets could have made out of that.
After the first onslaught, for a while it just rained. And then the hail started again, only briefly this time. Not enough, surely, to do any more damage than had already been done.
Tags: American history, COCORAHS, Colorado, Gay Pride, hailstorm, homelessness, weather
