Hellacious Hail

Big hail storm came through the South Denver metro area the other day, beat the hell out of Highlands Ranch. I was a bit north of the epicenter - the hail was pea sized instead of golf ball.

Heavy dark clouds started moving in in the late afternoon, and at first it was just an average storm as far as rain goes

 

Within minutes though the storm picked up, as if someone at storm central hit the "deluge" switch

 

Then the hail...buckets of hail, coming down hard like 

shrapnel from an exploding ice bomb 

Those little pellets of hail stung like angry bees, but this dedicated photojournalist  guy with a cell phone camera endured the onslaught with steel-like resolve in order to record the event for posterity

Full disclosure however...once the hail began to feel too saltrock blasty, I high-tailed it back into the store. That's a job for Weather Channel newbies who pull the short straw, not me.

 

After the storm passed the ground was covered in a layer of hail, in some places a few inches deep. Freakin' epic (as the kids say...uh, said, in like 2003)