It's A Tropical Hail Storm!
I awoke prematurely today in the darkness of the early morning hours. I figured that this must happen for everyone from time to time, but then I noticed that the predawn darkness was being interrupted by the continual flashing of lightning, accompanied by the low rumble of thunder, and the sound of the falling rain.
This came as a bit of a surprise to me – we had had a lot of rain here a couple of days ago, and the weather was expected to get better, at least according to the weather report the evening before. So I figured that this was just some kind of passing anomaly in the weather, and also figured that I would try to go back to sleep for a little while more.
When I attempted to drift back into “Dreamland”, however, I noticed that the sounds of the thunder and the rain were being accompanied by a new sound effect – a loud plopping sound on the roof.
OMG! Is it really – HAIL???
I had never seen it hail before in my life. I had heard of it happening in other parts of the island from time to time, but I had never had the experience of actually witnessing a hailstorm in person.
The plopping sounds grew in intensity. What had started as a scattering of reports had become a continuous barrage of pops and plops, as if someone were emptying buckets of ice cubes onto the roof.
Well, I figured that if this really was a hailstorm, then I had better take the opportunity now to experience it, as I might not get another chance at it. So I went outside and sort of stuck my hand out from under the roofline, where it was promptly pelted with cold little chunks of solidified water from the sky – Hail.
The hailstones were intermixed with raindrops, and were about the size of a quarter. They were beginning to accumulate on the ground, forming a thin blanket of ice. I thought to myself that if anyone were caught out in the open in this, they just might get a little injured, for it was a bit painful when the hailstones landed on my arm and hand.
By now, other family members were up and were wondering what was going on. I reached my hand out and caught a hailstone, and placed it into their hands. They were quite thrilled over it, for this was also the first time that they had seen or held a real hailstone; and they even exclaimed that being able to experience it was like having a dream come true.
Then I got my camera and shot some photos to record the “event”, for it seemed to be a big deal to us at the moment.
The hailstorm was included the morning news, and people seemed rather excited about it. Jokes were made about how the hail should be raked up to make Shave Ice with…
Sweet Dreams for Shave Ice
Yes, I sort of realize that this must seem like a “Hail-luva” lot of ado over nothing, but we just don’t get this kind of thing very often here… 🙂
PS – The Glass-Topped table in the photo DID NOT get cracked from the hailstones-
No, It Didn't Crack!