quite like winter

[Hill Wimp]

@Gravity Aided , I am up early for work and have just read the news about parts of Illinois.It sounds dreadful. Glad you and Mrs GA are OK.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I had a neighbor with hail damage to his car, but luckily, these hailstones with this storm only fell infrequently among smaller hail, the winds were truly fantastic, over 60 mph. A 3.75 inch hailstone came down near me. My elder sister was only a few miles from the tornado at Pekin, but did not even have hail. I have a lot of trees down, and lost telephone and internet for a while, but most of my town (Normal) was without power.
http://gma.yahoo.com/least-6-dead-i...age-homes-061534702--abc-news-topstories.html
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=ilx&storyid=98191&source=0
I was putting the Voyageur together in the garage after walking the dogs when my ears popped and I looked at the barometer by the door, and figured I'd better get things put up so I could put my car in the garage. It got bad enough I actually went to the tornado shelter in my basement with Mrs. GA and doggies. Odd for me to do that. I had Mrs. GA put on her bicycle helmet, as did I. We were lucky, no obvious damage at the house, and no trees down. Other parts of town, not so lucky.

This is closer to town, at a school and home for abandoned and otherwise challenged children.

 

[Gravity Aided]

@Gravity Aided so you didn't head over to Soldier Field...I assume those people were just crazy

No, almost impossible for me to get tickets to pro football events, corporations and such buy those up pretty well. I'm a Minnesota Vikings fan, Mrs. GA made me convert.

 

[Gravity Aided]

What damage does that hail do parked cars ?,I've seen hail storms in Europe trash cars,panel beater teams from the uk go out regularly to mend the roofs on newer cars that can have 70 plus smaller dents and replace windows and bonnets,but nothing of that size of hail bomb,and we think we get weather bad in the uk

I've seen whole car lots with new cars with such damage. That large hail can break out all the windows and dent the cars severely, but often it is a little softer than the smaller hail. I was still in a helmet when I collected specimens seen here. Better safe than sorry.

 

[DooDah]

Riding in my area at this time of year can be great, as can Spring. In fact I prefer it to summer, as it is just too hot sometimes. Winter can be a bit grim though.

 

[SWSteve]

@Gravity Aided I feel for you being a vikings fan, then again the jets arent exactly flying right now (pun intended). I was at Metlife the day of the buttfumble. Oh how I rue my choice at times

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Glad you, Mrs. GA and doggies are ok @Gravity Aided

 

[Gravity Aided]

@Gravity Aided I feel for you being a vikings fan, then again the jets arent exactly flying right now (pun intended). I was at Metlife the day of the buttfumble. Oh how I rue my choice at times

I'm asking Santa Klaus for a new head coach and a Quarterback not in rehab for Christmas.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Glad you, Mrs. GA and doggies are ok @Gravity Aided

All are quite well, and before she went to work today, I got Mrs. GA to take off her helmet. A fellow I work with has a friend who lost everything in Washington, Il. I'm giving some pre-cyclist clothing (4 and 5XL) so he has something other than the clothes he was wearing when the tornado hit. My local newspaper, the Pantagraph, told about 4 inch hail on the west side of Bloomington-Normal. Near me, a line of power poles snapped, but the power lines were held aloft by a convenient billboard until the power company put in a whole new line of poles and moved the cables over. An eventful weather day, maybe 80 tornadoes in all.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I also wish to thank you all for your concern. Hopefully severe weather is done until the first blizzard. Then May/June, we'll get back into tornado/severe weather season again. 8 ft basement=good investment.

 

[Phoenix Lincs]

Crickey. And we Brits don't really know how fortunate we are!

Hopefully more kind folks like you will rally round to help the people who have lost everything.

Thinking of you. Stay safe.

 

[Gravity Aided]

http://www.torro.org.uk/site/index.php

 

[Gravity Aided]

Plenty of help getting there now, a large food bank http://www.midwestfoodbank.org/here in town, and a lot of charities and disaster agencies are based in Peoria. We went from 70f at 11am to 38f overnight. The week before, we had snow, and this week we may again.

 

[SWSteve]

@Gravity Aided hope johnny football waits a year, you do terribly next year and get him as first overall pick - problem solved

then again Brett Favre is in 'the best shape of his life'

 

[Gravity Aided]

@ItsSteveLovell, both the Vikings and the Jets may have to wait for another year. Just so it does not become a thing like unto the Chicago Cubs, and the 105th anniversary of their last World Series win. Waitll next year.