The Start of the Season

[the_other_sandy]

We had our first major thunderstorm of the year last night. O'Hare clocked wind gusts of 70 mph and some places got baseball-sized hail.

We only got walnut-sized hail here. And I'm not sure what our peak wind gusts were, but there was one gust that hit the exterior wall of my apartment, with a very loud whump sound, hard enough to knock the curtains back from the wall. This is especially impressive because my apartment building is made of brick and poured concrete.

Comments

[seesmooshrun.livejournal.com]

You're sure there wasn't a tornado someplace? Hail + high winds +Midwest = bad, usually. Especially when they rattle your building. Ah, spring!

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I'm sure. The winds weren't rotating. Straight line winds produced by thunderstorms can do as much damage as a low end (EF0-EF2) tornado, though.