Tornado

What’s your idea of an exciting weekend? Would it include “teacup-sized” hailstones, tornadoes and Nascar racing? If so, I’m afraid you’ve just missed your chance.

 
This part of Texas is flat. So flat, in fact, that you can see for miles from my 9^th floor hotel window. When a significant storm swept through the area last night, there were tornado warnings, and all the hotel occupants were herded into the 1^st floor (translation into English: “ground floor”) ballrooms for safety. I soon got fed up with that, because these rooms have no windows (which is why they’re suitable shelters), and I headed back up to my room. The storm was coming in from the west, which is the direction I could see from the window of my room. There were tornadoes, but none hit directly or did too much damage (unless your house happened to be one of the unfortunate ones). There were hailstorms, but they were only minor here. I was mostly worried that my insurance on the car might not cover hail damage (and you should bear in mind that, whenever there is a significant hailstorm (which, fortunately, doesn’t happen too often), the local car dealerships are forced to offer their pockmarked stock at reduced prices). The local news media reported “teacup-sized” hailstones in some areas, and I think that even they were surprised by the analogy. These hailstones are obviously pretty big (and, as Lucy pointed out, “an umbrella wouldn’t do you much good”), but the more usual terms of reference are pea (¼”),  marble (½”), quarter (1”), ping-pong ball (1½”), golf ball (1¾”), baseball (2¾”) and softball (4½”), each of which were observed in at least one of the local areas. If you’re interested, it turns out that “teacup” is a formally recognized (by the US National Weather Service) category (3”), even though it may be oddly asymmetric (http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/eyes/hailsize.htm).

The hotel is mobbed this weekend by Nascar racing enthusiasts, corresponding to a major event at the nearby Texas Motor Speedway. This attracts a huge influx of rednecks from neighbouring states, and is thus the American equivalent of Formula One – needless to say, I didn’t attend, and attempted to avoid them at breakfast (they are harmless but enthusiastic).

So my Saturday (which, incidentally, was colder, at 50ºF, than England) was mostly uneventful, and involved only a haircut, the latest state quarters and two new shirts. The picture is just another addition to my collection of murals, and is not somewhere I’ve investigated any more thoroughly. For one thing, I don’t speak the language.