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Baseball-sized hail!? Did it have no effect outside of the solar farm? Does everyone in Nebraska park indoors? Was nobody caught put in the street? Are the hous
by Jeff_Brown 3y ago
Baseball-sized hail!? Did it have no effect outside of the solar farm? Does everyone in Nebraska park indoors? Was nobody caught put in the street? Are the houses made of stone?
- bombcar 3y agoCars get totaled by much smaller hail. I’ve hidden under a bridge when a green storm came by. And Nebraska is mostly empty so much falls on nothing. Roof insurance pays out and crews come from as far away as Arizona to feast and the cycle continues. These big hailstorms seem to be once in ten years or so.
- ChumpGPT 3y ago>green storm When they're green, you know there is hail and perhaps even a tornado inside somewhere. Beautiful but terrifying all at the same time.
- api 3y agoA hailnado?
- dredmorbius 3y agoIt's not the wind that's damaging so much as the things the wind is carrying. Hail. Rocks. Planks. Cows...
- dredmorbius 3y agoLate edit: sharks.
- Jeff_Brown 3y agoHow fast does air have to go to hurt your face?
- dredmorbius 3y agoAgain, it depends on what's in it. At even modest cycling speeds, dust, sand, insects, rocks, small children, etc., may irritate or injure eyes. Eyewear is strongly recommended. At highway speeds (~100 kph) your eyes will tend to tear up. With goggles, motorcyclists, race-car drivers, and pilots sustain wind speeds of ~200--300 kph, though that is probably an upper reasonable limit, and again, any sort of debris will greatly increase trauma. (Some) pilots have survived supersonic bailouts or loss of structural integrity: <http://www.classichistory.net/archives/sr-71-breakup http://www.classichistory.net/archives/sr-71-breakup>. Though typically, that ride starts with a full flight suit and helmet, though it needn't end in the same state.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoRon White "it's not that the wind is blowing, it's what the wind is blowing."
- dredmorbius 3y agoThere it is!
- thechao 3y agoHad a 90mph hailnado ~8 years ago. It came straight across the yard & drove water through the front door, spalled a 1/4" of limestone off the front of the house & stripped the blades off of the grass: we had a field of tiny, poky stalks.
- api 3y agoThis is a thing in parts of Texas and it can destroy roofs, cars, equipment, you name it. It can also injure and kill people and livestock. Yes the hail too is big in Texas.
- ChumpGPT 3y ago1995 Mayfest storm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Mayfest_Storm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Mayfest_Storm
- LanceH 3y agoIt doesn't hail as widely as it rains (at least in the Dallas area). It tends to dump hail across a couple neighborhoods per storm, while the rain my fall across all of Dallas and Fort Worth (hundreds of square miles). Even withing the areas where hail falls, most of it won't be the giant hailstones. Once it gets below the size of a quarter cars and roofs are generally safe. But yes, it regularly totals cars and destroys roofs. They'll send out an army of adjusters and roofers will swarm the area looking for work. Don't be an insurance company specializing in just one city in Texas or you can be wiped out in one storm.
- 404mm 3y agoCan confirm. I happen to live in one of the affected neighborhoods. From my experience in TX, roofs do really well with up to ping pong sized hail. Anything bigger and you have a problem. It’s absolutely mind blowing to me how many people have their garage packed with “stuff and junk” and park outside. And then they end up strapping mattresses on their cars with duct tape. I really want solar panels but it just doesn’t seem to make sense here. This is the 2nd time we’re having roof replaced in 10 years. A few houses have panels on their roofs and about 30% panels seem to have damage visible from the street.
- fallinghawks 3y agoThis is going to sound hacky, but would a screen of 1" chicken wire mounted several inches above the panel (the stuff stretches) make for some cheap insurance? The wire is thin enough that it shouldn't interfere significantly with the amount of light the panel gets.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoChicken wire isn't very strong: the hail would probably just rip it apart.
- xur17 3y ago> Don't be an insurance company specializing in just one city in Texas or you can be wiped out in one storm. I assume this would be standard practice (diversify across regions and types of insurance) for any insurance provider, right?
- dredmorbius 3y agoAs others have noted, Nebraska is largely rural space, and severe hail damage tends to be localised. Other damage would likely have been limited to a few vehicles and structures (not many as those would not be densely clustered), and probably a fair bit of crop damage. Both within a reasonably small radius relative to the solar farm. The solar array was most likely the most valuable property in the region. It's what happened to be in the bullseye of the storm, so to speak.
- sumtechguy 3y agoHaving previously lived in the area. It depends. But yeah we usually just parked in the garage. But not everyone has that and they get their car obliterated by it. Insurance usually covers it. That size is rare enough that it is not that big of a deal. But when it does. Usually it is pea sized. Golf ball sized is decently rare. Baseball (this case) is very very rare. That size is along the lines it would damage your roof on your house too.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoAll the houses in my area needed new roofs from "just" golf-ball sized hail. Farmers lost entire crops. The ground was solid white: it was like snow in July.
- sumtechguy 3y agothats a bad one...