Hail in Tar Nation

I awoke from an afternoon nap today to loud noises of thunder, rain and debris hitting my house. By the time I was able to get dressed and reach my living room to check the local weather station, I learned that there was a tornado passing very near my home. The rain was intense and mixed with hail. The hailstones quickly filled the drainage system in my front yard, and water was rushing past my house, carrying small hail stones in its wake. I was lucky that the debris I heard was most likely just hail, but my thoughts soon turned to my houseplants that are exposed on my back deck. When the rain abated enough for me to open the rear door of my house, I could smell the fragrant scents of bruised and battered houseplants. It appears that there was not a lot of damage, although I won't probably know until the scars start to heal. At the time of this posting, tornado warnings continue to be issued in neighboring counties.

(Left Top: Small hailstones clump at the end of my sidewalk in the front yard of my house.)

(Above: Some of my houseplants with hailstones around and inside their containers.)

Click on any image to enlarge it.


(Left: "The Devil is Beating His Wife" as they say here in North Carolina. This photo shows the sun shining brightly while rain continues to fall. Most people predict that rain will continue tomorrow when this phenomenon is seen.)









(Left: Hailstones rest in the grass and around the base of my Crape Myrtle tree.)



Categories: weather Durham North+Carolina photography houseplants