hail storm

[blackjack]

...the poor barley crop took its second pounding in the last 10 days...what looked like a bumper crop a few days back now looks like its been ran through the shredder...hope you guys east of here had better luck missing the hail... kinda of a spooky storm this afternoon...

[cowman]

where are you located blackjack ? We had severe thunderstorm watches for the past two evenings but all that materialized was some lightening, thunder and a ten minute downpour.
Sorry to hear about the hail. Got it here last year at this time and it did over $25,000.00 damage to the house and outbuildings.

[cakadu]

The hail was actually patchy out this way blackjack. I was coming home from Red Deer when I got a call to drive west on 592 (past the Hutterite colony) because the hail was tracking over and down Highway #54. Didn't encounter any hail before I reached home, but the rain sure was pounding down. There have been reports of a funnel cloud out in this area, but never saw anything myself. The hail was g**** to quarter size, but thankfully soft. It didn't last long around our place I guess, but maybe you got it for a bit longer.

Our hay that was standing, isn't standing so well anymore, but with any luck it will come up a little - otherwise we'll have to let the sheep in there to eat it.

It sounds like the worst of it is over for the night, but more instability on the way tomorrow.

[blackjack]

...emrald1...I live in the Spruce View area not to far from Cakadu...got over an inch in less than I guess 20 minutes...eaves-trough filled with hail so we had some water come into the basement...nothing to serious...

...cakadu...also heard that someone saw a funnel in our area...even though the clouds were boiling pretty good we never saw it either... on the hay side...got about 2/3 baled...unfortunately like so many others out here the rest is getting a little water logged...one thing about farming is nature sure has a way of making it a challenge whether it is good or bad...

[cakadu]

Blackjack - you definitely got more than what we did then. We got an inch in total over the evening - about 1/2 inch out of the hail storm and then another half inch about 7:30 or so. Hail wasn't that heavy either - I guess the good part is that it was soft hail and didn't do too much damage.

I guess there are some things to be thankful for - over a metre of rain fell in just a few hours in parts of India, with the death toll expected to reach 1,000.

Sounds like it is going to be a scorcher over the next few days though. Give me 70 to 75 degrees anytime.

[cakadu]

I agree Linda, when the weather gets too hot usually nasty weather follows but this time it appears it is going to be the other way around. Sounds like seasonal weather again ( 20-21) later in the week.
Lots of hay down around this area, some of it for well over a week, so hopefully a few days without rain will see most of it rolled up.

[cowman]

East of Red Deer. No hail, but a good hard rain and lots of wind! The hog farmers now have their crops in a fairly horizontal position but us old sinners who rely on chem fertilizers are doing okay!
Still is looking like a bumper crop and the canola might just break every record!
It is frustrating to get hailed out when you have a good crop? It is sort of funny in a way how that can work? Sometimes we can be borderline for rain but we don't get any hail...to speak of?
Never have had a crop failure, in my lifetime? Or for that matter in my dads or grandfathers...apparently they even got a fairly decent crop in the dirty thirties! My old uncle says if we had fertilizers and spray the thirties would have been nothing!

[cakadu]

Today's paper had an article in it about how the cloud seeders are out there doing their job on behalf of the insurance companies. Instead of their being $100 million per year in damages due to hail, with cloud seeding there is only about $30 to $40 million. So it looks like they are hitting their goals about 60% of the time. The other side of that story is that they are keeping a lot more money in their pockets and adding to their bottom line.

Interesting how they never speak about what the cumulative effects are or how it could be used to start rain in times of drought.