Thursday, July 29, 2010

On the Lighter Side...

...and when I say "lighter", I of course mean HEAVY...

World Record Hailstone Weighed In Vivian

It was Friday afternoon when a line of thunderstorms fired up in central South Dakota. High winds, heavy rains and even a possible tornado rolled through the town of Vivian. But now days later, a hailstone picked up just moments after the storm is getting worldwide attention.

...
Moments later, the hailstone weighed in at 1.9375 pounds.


A TWO POUND hailstone. Think about that for a second. The weight of your average brick is 4-4½ pounds, so this hailstone weighed at a half-brick, approximately. Think about bricks falling from the sky... Now go invest in a good stainless steel umbrella... It was also 18.5" around - imagine that landing on the hood of your car (never mind your skull!).

I guess we have a new euphemism: Hailing Halfbricks...

That is all.

Thanks to PISSED for sending this story along - given the news today, I needed something on the, err, lighter side...

5 comments:

Justin Buist said...

Another way to think of it: An ice cube made of a quart of water.

Ouch.

jimbob86 said...

Yeah, they broke our record (7.7 inches in diameter) .... they can have it!

Patrick said...

Or a sidearm...... Of course, raining sidearms might actually be cool...

Butch Cassidy said...

Raining sidearms...Maybe that is why you guys in Mass have that drop safety stuff, now all you need is tornado alley weather.

BobG said...

"- imagine that landing on the hood of your car (never mind your skull!)."

A car wouldn't be bad; try to imagine someone on a motorcycle getting smacked by that thing.