SPRING STORMS IN TEXAS

APRIL 16TH STORM

(Our Backyard after the storm was over. Everything was blown over)

For those of you who are not familiar with our powerful and regular severe thunderstorms in the spring let me fill you in...It is normal to have Tornado Watches (atmosphere capable of producing tornados) and Tornado Warnings (Rotation in the sky or Clouds which indicate a tornado will drop down at any time), hail, high winds, heavy rain, and unbelievable lightning! It gets pretty scary, but it happens every spring. So as of now we have already had about 6 days of severe weather in all. This last one that hit us was pretty bad.

(First Round of Hail)

(2 very scared kiddos... "OOOOH, That is what that sound was")

Here's the story: Eevie had a softball game that night, so we are out at the fields in the middle of no where. Everything is going great until we start to see lightning in the distance, one of the parents had a weather tracker on their cell phone and was keeping everyone updated. (well me being the chicken that i am start packing up so that I can haul outta there!) He let us all know that the storm system which dropped down a tornado about 15 min prior was heading our way and was super close. As soon as our game is over we take off, about 15-20 min after we get home we start hearing the storm roll in...then the rain...then the hail, and wind... and then the HAIL! It was so loud that I thought our windows were going to break. Me and the kids are terrified, but no not Rick! He is in the window watching the hail, opening and closing the front door to "get a better view" Now, remind you that the winds are like 60 mph or more, there is a flood of water flowing down the street, plus the hail was supposed to get up to baseball size... and he is trying to see?! Well... enough about that, thank goodness a tornado didn't drop down and suck him up! Then he would have gotten a great view?! About 20 min and the storm was gone, leaving nothing but mounds of hail and tons of black stuff that came off our roof shingles. It looked like we had a snowstorm.

(Dog bowl full of Ice after the storm)

(This is where our outdoor lights were before the hail and wind took them out!)

For us the damage wasn't that bad, we had a few broken lights and some small minor dents and scratches on the vehicles... but other than that nothing serious... BUT, Spring isn't over yet, and we have a weekend full of weather ahead of us.

P.S. For those of you who know Suzanna; Sorry that my storm story wasn't nearly as interesting as Suzanna's video!!!