I agree also, i love all aspects of chasing but i have to say i do love hail, i try to get into it , usually im dealing with small hail to golfball... although when it comes to baseball and what not i havent been in the stuff to get the feeling of liking that size, the videos just show you some scary stuff and what not, but also thats got to be one hell of an adrenaline rush ;-) , either way as of right now anything as big of baseball size or larger...count me out"
Charles Kuster
EF4
I really like hail, but we usually stay away from the really big hail (the biggest I have seen is golfball). We don't have the money to pay for damage to our car. If we can find shelter then we do let the storm hit and hope that there is some hail. Maybe we will see larger hail and not lose the car this year. 
Robert Edmonds
EF5
I usually try to avoid the hail. I fear a window being broken and having my stuff get soaked. Most of the time if this would happen my electronics would be open to the elements. I do have a pelican case for a camera or two but not much else. Plus the broken glass factor, I know all to well the dangers of it. I cut a tendon on broken glass in a lab. Finally my chase season would probably be over because I've have to end up paying for it all, on a college budget. My concern for hail would change more if I had more water protection for the equipment and lots of $$$. I don't see that happening any time soon so till then I guess I'll have to be happy with the structure.
Joe Zemek
EF2
Well, I enjoy hail falling on me when I'm in a structure; less so in a car. I moved from Denver before fulfilling a personal fantasy: being in DIA's main terminal for a big hailstorm. I bet that place is some drum!
I see large hail as more a chase hazard than a chase target. I am uninclined to corepunch unless I am confident about doing so safely and there's a nice reward on the other side, such as a structure shot, a tornado, or personal safey I can't afford window damage on the road; that would usually mean chasecation over. I am sure I'd approach hail differently if I lived in the Alley and had a beater chasemobile for hail sampling purposes, especially since such a vehicle might often be sampled by hail in non-chase modes, like parked.
I see large hail as more a chase hazard than a chase target. I am uninclined to corepunch unless I am confident about doing so safely and there's a nice reward on the other side, such as a structure shot, a tornado, or personal safey
I can't afford window damage on the road; that would usually mean chasecation over. I am sure I'd approach hail differently if I lived in the Alley and had a beater chasemobile for hail sampling purposes, especially since such a vehicle might often be sampled by hail in non-chase modes, like parked.
Greg Stumpf
EF5
When encountering car crunching hail, one should consider waiting it out while STOPPED.
Tony Laubach
EF5
Allow me to defend that by saying I had rented a vehicle for the purpose of traveling to Midland for my Dad's wedding. This was done a couple weeks in advance of this trip. While I knew chasing was a distinct possibility (Its Texas AND its May), it wasn't my intention to rent the car for the purpose of totalling it. In fact, I signed for the damage waiver at the very last second as the salesman was obviously trying to make more money out of me by lowering the daily price of the coverage a few bucks a day. His last words; "just in case you get into a hailstorm or something". Its then when I looked at the sunroof and said, "ya know, you're right".
However, since chasing opened up and did happen, I will definately admit to being a bit less inclined to avoid the hail situation. Obviously I didn't intentionally mean to total the car as when golfballs starting to fall, we were preparing to get out of there. We then heard reports of bigger hail in town, thus we stayed put thinking the worst was to our east and would pass. We all know what happened next.
Of course, being in a covered rental, I didn't lose my mind seeing as the car being totalled wasn't mine. And while it was exciting and made for some great video, I will end up paying an out of pocket price in the form of glass shreadings. That back windshield ended up all over the interior of the car; glass in shoes, clothes, camera cases, etc. While the clothes will be fine, I elected to replace my aluminum camera case cause of the incredible amount of glass which ended up in the case. Some was even drilled in as stones eventually came straight in landing on the backseat and case. Fortunately, the gear was left unharmed.
So while your comment was meant lightly, and I'll fully admit to cracking a rather big grin upon seeing the remnants of the car, I certainly do not endorse getting a rental for the purpose of crashing it out. But if you are going to chase in a rental, DEFINATELY get that waiver. It was the best $45 I have EVER spent!
Brian Stertz
EF5
Certainly like this topic as well...I try to avoid the nasty hailcore and position as best I can to have a view of the tornado and yet be removed from the cascade of baseballs and softballs. This sometimes gets completely thrown out the window though when those rogue hailbombs come launching from the updraft. The Chillicothe MO supercell (April 18th) was one of those such hail slingers. I agree that sometimes things are unavoidable and you find yourself getting pummeled. Just better hope that shelter is available nearby. Loss of the windshield is pretty much the end of the chase. For those that are "hail barons", it would be very wise to bring sheets of plexiglass and duct tape, and maybe some spare headlights!!
Mark Farnik
EF5
Hail is a very interesting severe weather phenomena, for sure. But I personally don't like hail because my dad is a farmer and we've had hailstorms destroy our crops and wipe us out financially for years in the past. Probably the worst one was July 19, 1997, the beginning of what us Coloradoans have come to know as "The Monsoon from Hell".
About 2:30 in the afternoon a vicious, purplish black HP supercell rocketed out of the northwest and dumped 5 1/2 inches of rain in 45 minutes, accompanied by quarter size hail driven by 80 mph sustained winds with gusts over 100 mph :blink: . I think that storm was the closest thing to a hurricane you will ever see in the High Plains. The damage was horrendous. The wind was so intense it drove water in under the windows on the west side of the house even though they were completely shut and locked. It completely flattened or flooded all his wheat and sunflowers. 9 years later we still haven't fully recovered from that storm. Then last year on July 15 we had another nasty HP back in on us from the north, spitting golf ball size hail for about 30 seconds and then shooter marble size hail for about 10 minutes, all driven by 70 mph winds. It shattered 50% of his triticale heads on what could have been a 60 bushel to the acre crop. Probably the most frightening(though not very damaging, thankfully) hailstorm we had was a midnight golf ball barrage that was clattering so loud on the metal roof on our house I thought a tornado was ripping the place apart. It lasted about ten minutes, but since it was coming straight down damage was limited mostly to our trees. What was weird about that is that the hail only fell on our place; it missed our neighbors only a quarter mile to the southwest. Typical Colorado weather weirdness. We've been lucky this far not to have had bigger than golfball size hail fall on our homestead or fields and no broken windows in more than twenty years, but that could easily change with one nasty storm.
My whole family has had bad experiences with hail. My dad went through a hen's egg size hailstorm/tornado in 1980 that blew out the windows on the north side of our house and plastered leaves on the the south wall of our living room on the other side of the house and caused a lot of water damage to boot. My mom lived through the July 1979 Fort Collins grapefruit + size hailstorm that killed a baby in its mother's arms and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to cars and buildings. One of the hailstones they recovered was 13 inches in circumference. The house her, her folks and sister lived in had tremendous roof/window damage and my aunt's Mercury Comet was obliterated (every window was shattered, it had 5 inch diameter/two inch deep dents all over it; one of the hailstones broke off one of her mirrors, and another partially caved in the roof; my mom said it looked like somebody had dropped a steel basketball on it. It was an insane storm, to say the least. :blink
So it isn't just me; my whole family has a strong dislike of hail, small and especially large. When chasing I try and avoid the big stuff as much as possible. Somtimes it's unavoidable, though. Since Colorado supes are such prolific hail producers I am always on my guard because they can go from producing quarters to producing baseballs or bigger in less than two minutes. So basically, I hate big hail, and unless I can't avoid I will. Besides, I can't afford to replace my windshield every couple of weeks. I'm just a poor Wexican farmboy (White Mexican), LOL. :lol: But if you get some dents, they're just "battle scars" you can proudly show off to your friends and tell them about whichever harrowing chase they came from. They add character to your vehicle, as long as the whole skin of your car doesn't have the lunar look.
About 2:30 in the afternoon a vicious, purplish black HP supercell rocketed out of the northwest and dumped 5 1/2 inches of rain in 45 minutes, accompanied by quarter size hail driven by 80 mph sustained winds with gusts over 100 mph :blink: . I think that storm was the closest thing to a hurricane you will ever see in the High Plains. The damage was horrendous. The wind was so intense it drove water in under the windows on the west side of the house even though they were completely shut and locked. It completely flattened or flooded all his wheat and sunflowers. 9 years later we still haven't fully recovered from that storm. Then last year on July 15 we had another nasty HP back in on us from the north, spitting golf ball size hail for about 30 seconds and then shooter marble size hail for about 10 minutes, all driven by 70 mph winds. It shattered 50% of his triticale heads on what could have been a 60 bushel to the acre crop. Probably the most frightening(though not very damaging, thankfully) hailstorm we had was a midnight golf ball barrage that was clattering so loud on the metal roof on our house I thought a tornado was ripping the place apart. It lasted about ten minutes, but since it was coming straight down damage was limited mostly to our trees. What was weird about that is that the hail only fell on our place; it missed our neighbors only a quarter mile to the southwest. Typical Colorado weather weirdness. We've been lucky this far not to have had bigger than golfball size hail fall on our homestead or fields and no broken windows in more than twenty years, but that could easily change with one nasty storm.
My whole family has had bad experiences with hail. My dad went through a hen's egg size hailstorm/tornado in 1980 that blew out the windows on the north side of our house and plastered leaves on the the south wall of our living room on the other side of the house and caused a lot of water damage to boot. My mom lived through the July 1979 Fort Collins grapefruit + size hailstorm that killed a baby in its mother's arms and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to cars and buildings. One of the hailstones they recovered was 13 inches in circumference. The house her, her folks and sister lived in had tremendous roof/window damage and my aunt's Mercury Comet was obliterated (every window was shattered, it had 5 inch diameter/two inch deep dents all over it; one of the hailstones broke off one of her mirrors, and another partially caved in the roof; my mom said it looked like somebody had dropped a steel basketball on it. It was an insane storm, to say the least. :blink
So it isn't just me; my whole family has a strong dislike of hail, small and especially large. When chasing I try and avoid the big stuff as much as possible. Somtimes it's unavoidable, though. Since Colorado supes are such prolific hail producers I am always on my guard because they can go from producing quarters to producing baseballs or bigger in less than two minutes. So basically, I hate big hail, and unless I can't avoid I will. Besides, I can't afford to replace my windshield every couple of weeks. I'm just a poor Wexican farmboy (White Mexican), LOL. :lol: But if you get some dents, they're just "battle scars" you can proudly show off to your friends and tell them about whichever harrowing chase they came from. They add character to your vehicle, as long as the whole skin of your car doesn't have the lunar look.
Andrew Khan
EF5
I love hail, just being in the midst of something so great and unique, makes me very excited. I also love the thrill of being around large hail.....but when windows gets destroyed....thats another story...
Scott Currens
I love big hail, as long as I'm not in my wife's vehicle.
Here is clip from the April 5, 2003 monster hail machine. We were in Eric Nguyen's van, it had a overhang hail grill to protect the front windsheld. As you can see the grill worked perfectly, not a single crack after being in baseball to softball hail for more than 30 minutes. I can't say the same for the side windows.
Giant Hail
Scott Currens
www.violentplains.com
Here is clip from the April 5, 2003 monster hail machine. We were in Eric Nguyen's van, it had a overhang hail grill to protect the front windsheld. As you can see the grill worked perfectly, not a single crack after being in baseball to softball hail for more than 30 minutes. I can't say the same for the side windows.
Giant Hail
Scott Currens
www.violentplains.com
Kenny Drake
EF3
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2006
- Messages
- 227
I don't mind putting myself in hail if there is nothing better to see... under these conditions:
1) It's not my car
2) I wont have to pay for the damage to the vehicle.
Ok I guess that means I probably wont be driving into a large hailcore anytime soon, at least not intentionally.
1) It's not my car
2) I wont have to pay for the damage to the vehicle.
Ok I guess that means I probably wont be driving into a large hailcore anytime soon, at least not intentionally.
John Hudson
EF4
That's one thing we sometimes tend to forget, that large hail can be disastrous for crops. I don't know about where you live, Mark, but I've heard lots of farmers up here refer to hail as "the big white combine",especially in Alberta, just east of the foothills.This area is reported to get more hail than any other place on the planet.
The real big stones can be a killer for livestock, too.
John
VE4 JTH
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