STORM2K

I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031113/ap_on_re_us/socal_storm

I heard about this hail event in the Los Angeles area, this afternoon on the Fox News Channel.
Impressive/rare event for the region.

Wonder if Joshua was affected! :o

The reports of hail were in the "San Diego viewing area." I wouldn't be surprised if Joshua was that far from the activity.

San Diego NBC - Ch. 7/39

I saw some video of it...WOW...looked SOOO much like snow...people were shoveling it! :o

The Day After Tomorrow come true?

Actually, Josh and I have been posting about it in one of the other forums

http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=18500

This storm was very localized. The news media makes it sound it all of Los Angeles was affected, but only about an area of 50 square miles was really hit hard. Downtown LA for instance (only 10 miles north of Watts and Compton) got about an inch of rain. In W LA, we got a few hundreths. I believe Orange County hardly got anything. Whereas, in Watts, there was an official report of 18 inches of hail and 5.?? inches of rain in two hours. Someone brought in a sample of hail to our department today, and it was slightly larger than a marble after already partially melting. So, a report of there being golf ball sized hail is possibly true, though I've not seen an official local storm report mentioning any large hail. We don't really have many spotters out here for good reason.

In terms of the amount of hail dropped, this probably will be a once in a lifetime event for most Angelinos. I don't even recall 18 inches of hail being dropped in one storm during my years in Denver, which gets hail very often during the summer.

Summary from UCLA's staff meteorologist:
-----------
Infrequently low pressure systems passing through the Southland have the potential to be a memorable, "hall of fame" storm. Most often however, timing and circumstances of moisture/instability distribution preclude such events. Such was not the case yesterday afternoon. A "sea breeze convergence" wind flow pattern set up over central L.A. County (helped initiate the thunderstorms in an unstable atmosphere). Low pressure aloft seemed to create a deformation field in the wind flow aloft (perfect to "crank up" thunderstorm circulation). Rather extraordinary was that the deformation moved little in the late afternoon (contributing to the nearly non-stop intense rain and hail in one region of the L.A. basin). Conditions weren't so favorable (for thunderstorms) in West L.A., but a great light show was visible for the early evening hours (elsewhere too).
-------------

Nope, I didn't get hit. By anything other than a trace of rain. So I'm ok here. Thanks for the concern though. Sure was a nice light show in the northern sky though. I mean; how often do you see such visuals from southern California, especially the greater Los Angeles area??!! That is just crazy IMHO!

Yah, the storm just stalled there. We were watching it on radar. The news video showed the results from some area of L.A. ___ cars buried up to the tops of their wheels in hail which was just incredible to see. This just confirms the old song about California:

"It never rains in Southern California - it pours, man it pours".

btangy, I have been following that thread.

Thanks for your report, Joshua.

No problem Tom.