Hail!

We lived through a crazy storm yesterday.  We did not have just wind, or just rain.  We experienced  strong, bough bending winds, torrential rain, and golf-ball sized hail pounding onto the roof.  

The storm may have only lasted as long as a re-run episode of Seinfeld, but its effects were incredible. 

Now that I am looking back at the pictures from this thirty minutes of extreme weather, it seems amazing that so much water came down so fast.  To go from extreme heat, humidity and dry, scorched earth to storm clouds and rain was an incredible experience.  The lifelong desert rat that I am can't help but get a little emotional at downpours such as this one. 

At first the girls and I thought it was just rain.

Then the pounding began.  The hailstones covered the front and back yard, pounded on the windows and roof, and basically scared the living daylights out of my oldest daughter.

The rain soon covered the sidewalk, and water filled the gutters.

This may not seem like a big deal, but rain spilling off of the roof of my house is HUGE!

I ran out to the front lawn, umbrella in hand, to collect this monster of a hail stone.  

Cupped in Cubby's hands, the hail stone is clearly one size larger than a golf ball!

A standing water puddle in the desert?!  I've got to get my camera, this is insane!

Once the hail had ceased from rocketing out of the sky, the rain continued to fall.  Lovely, lovely raindrops covered my windows.  

More raindrops dripped from the eaves.

And then the rain stopped.  My backyard hasn't looked this fresh and clean since last April.  

Finally the sun came out.  This summer storm was so brief, that it seemed to appear as if I had just sprayed off the sidewalk with a hose.  But after a closer look, I noted that the ground had turned muddy, the streets were slick with rain, and sadly, some friends' cars still carry the scars of their violent collision with hail stones.