California Hailstorm

[wdk450]

I went through the worst hailstorm of my life Sunday afternoon here in Coloma, California just after I backed into my space at about 2 PM with my trailer. Some rumbles and distant lighting, small sub-pea sized hail, but then the size of the hail kept building and building along with the lighting and thunder. I had to stop putting up my satellite dish about 1/4 way into the storm as the larger hailstones were pelting me uncomfortably. It ended up with inch and a quarter sized hail which broke the vent cover over the toilet, and a lightning strike cut the power off to the RV park. I drove the 15 miles into the Home Depot in Placerville and got more Gorilla Tape, some big electrical wirenuts to bypass my electrical protector that I was sure was ruined by the lightning pulse that blew out the power, a 5 gallon jerry can for gas for my generator, some chemical to help me start it after not using it for over 3 years, and some fresh gasoline. I got back to the park and got the generator going after 30 minutes (and some ether spray I had), just as the power came back on. My electrical protector WAS OK after all. I hung a towel inside the vent overnight until I could get up on the roof monday morning and make a temporary repair on the vent cover with Gorilla Tape until I can get a new cover.

Other people in the park had broken power awnings, and more broken vent and front window plastic covers. In driving to Placerville, I did not see other areas with the ground covered with hail (like snowfall) as we had at the park.

I am now ordering one of those vent insulation pillows both for the cold overnight temps (near freezing) and to cut down the rain intrusion in case the vent cover gets broken again, along with a new vent cover.

I called the Sacramento TV station with the wild weather report, but it didn't make it on TV due to a small tornado in nearby Denair, Ca.

 

[TravelTiger]

I went through the worst hailstorm of my life Sunday afternoon here in Coloma, California just after I backed into my space at about 2 PM with my trailer. Some rumbles and distant lighting, small sub-pea sized hail, but then the size of the hail kept building and building along with the lighting and thunder. I had to stop putting up my satellite dish about 1/4 way into the storm as the larger hailstones were pelting me uncomfortably. It ended up with inch and a quarter sized hail which broke the vent cover over the toilet, and a lightning strike cut the power off to the RV park. I drove the 15 miles into the Home Depot in Placerville and got more Gorilla Tape, some big electrical wirenuts to bypass my electrical protector that I was sure was ruined by the lightning pulse that blew out the power, a 5 gallon jerry can for gas for my generator, some chemical to help me start it after not using it for over 3 years, and some fresh gasoline. I got back to the park and got the generator going after 30 minutes (and some ether spray I had), just as the power came back on. My electrical protector WAS OK after all. I hung a towel inside the vent overnight until I could get up on the roof monday morning and make a temporary repair on the vent cover with Gorilla Tape until I can get a new cover.

Other people in the park had broken power awnings, and more broken vent and front window plastic covers. In driving to Placerville, I did not see other areas with the ground covered with hail (like snowfall) as we had at the park.

I am now ordering one of those vent insulation pillows both for the cold overnight temps (near freezing) and to cut down the rain intrusion in case the vent cover gets broken again, along with a new vent cover.

I called the Sacramento TV station with the wild weather report, but it didn't make it on TV due to a small tornado in nearby Denair, Ca.

So sorry for your damage!! Sounds like a storm from Texas! Large hail is usually on the back side of a tornadic storm. If you've ever watched live storm chasers, they are very strategic to avoid the hail core when chasing a tornado capable storm.

http://www.chasertv.com


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[TandT]

Bill,
Glad there was no serious damage. Hail storms and lightning are pretty common in Southern Utah, as well as much of the southwest and can be unnerving in an RV. More rare in California however. Just one of the adventures of full-time RVing.
Travel safe. Trace

 

[JohnD]

Hail storms are pretty scary . . . my new truck got over $2000 of hail dings less than a month after I bought it last year.

Still haven't gotten it fixed . . . and ironically, one year to the day . . . parked in the same spot at work . . . we had another (but not so serious) hail storm (no damage this time)!

A few years back while on our way home from a camping trip to Taos, NM I saw a huge horizontal rolling cloud (ie.- a tornado not touching the ground) heading toward us just to the west of the highway.

We pulled off at the next exit (Pueblo, CO) and got the truck under the awning at a gas station seconds before a huge wall of hail hit!

That storm lasted about 45 minutes.

Our old Coachman TT wasn't lucky enough to fit under the awning and was completely pelted . . .

It already had a few hail dings in it, but after this storm all four sides and the roof were completely covered with hail dings, plus all three roof vent covers were busted.

Here are a couple of photos I snapped from under the awning:



In the second shot, if you look on the right side of the photo you can see a circular shape in the clouds facing down that was rotating rapidly as it passed . . . I'm guessing that was the tip of the tornado before it touched down about five miles east and tore up some trees and power lines.

By the by . . . I did fill up the truck while we were there!

 

[TxCowboy]

John, those are some scary skies you saw. Wow!!

 

[TravelTiger]

Ya, you don't want to see these coming at you. This storm produced rotation, hail, damaging winds, but luckily no tornados that touched the ground. The green in the clouds usually means hail.

 

[TandT]

As a kid, I grew up in Ft Worth for 12 years. I remember it would get very still and eerie, black clouds and then the green sky would appear. You knew something was about to hit the fan. Trace

 

[JohnD]

Here are some tornado shots I took near our house (third shot from our driveway looking straight up and fourth a couple of minutes after it passed by looking east):

Storm clouds are one of my photo interests . . .

 

[Kbvols]

Those are pretty awesome pictures John


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[TravelTiger]

Here are some tornado shots I took near our house (third shot from our driveway looking straight up and fourth a couple of minutes after it passed by looking east):

Storm clouds are one of my photo interests . . .

John are you crazy? You are supposed to be taking cover if you are that close!!! SMH


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