Hailacious

We had one hellacious hail storm today in Pasadena (sometime near 1:30 PM).

Smack dab in the middle of a meeting it started banging on the windows of the office we were in and startled us so completely that we stopped temporarily to check out the racket. About a half hour later I wandered up to the front of building looking for someone and noticed that people were throwing handfuls of white stuff at one another outside.

Curious, I stepped outside and realized that there were piles of rapidly melting stones shoved up against the building and in corners here and there. Most of the hail stones were about 1/4" to a 1/2" in diameter, but there were quite few of the larger variety (although I didn't spot any that were really big).

A few minutes later I realized that I have a camera phone and grabbed a few pictures... score one for the flexible modern mobile phone.

This has been a day of some of the most intense rains I've ever seen in SoCal. We always make light about how nutty everyone out here becomes when it rains, but it very rarely rains this hard; there was good reason to take it easy. At one point this morning, I was in the left lane, passing most others and I was going all of 42 MPH.

Weird weather is here to stay.