Oh, HAIL no.

[dvandom]

Softball sized hail just west of here. Fortunately for my car, it was only about 2-3cm in diameter by the time the storm front got to my neighborhood.

Addendum: Parked next to my car at work was a pickup truck that must've been out where the softballs were falling...it looked like someone had worked it over with a mace. Covered in dents to the point of looking like a golf ball, windshield shattered and sagging inward on the safety glass plastic layers, etc.

Comments

[grant-p.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it. I'm in a different area then you but I had to toss some foam sheets over my solar panels due to hail earlier. I wasn't sure if they'd hold up under it.

On the bright side, walnut sized hail didn't seem to do anything even when the foam blew off in the gale. I doubt they'd hold up under softballs, though. I got sick of getting clobbered so I didn't try to fix them twice as it occurred to me that the medical bills were about to surpass the cost of replacement panels.

Glad you're ok. How much damage did it do?

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

I have some little dings on the roof of my car, which I may try popping out with one of those "Ding King" things. Also, I'd left my windows open a crack (30% chance of rain forecast, sigh) and the inside of my car was pretty drenched. Otherwise I'm okay. The baseball and softball sized ones did a lot of damage elsewhere, though, and there's plenty of flash flooding. A couple of people got hit with the softball ones while doing highway speed and it took out their windshields.

[grant-p.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Glad it wasn't worse.

It makes me wonder how the future solar/hybrid cars will handle hail, as in most models and add-on options proposed the panels are on the roof and trunk areas, and sometimes the hood. My personal solar array is old style polycarbonate, but I seriously doubt even the new kinds would hold up well to being whacked with the equivalent of a ball peen hammer. A cracked solar roof is a heck of a lot more then just bodywork.