Thursday, May 14, 2009

Storm

We had a thunderstorm last night. Not an uncommon occurrence here. I took these pictures as it was brewing.



We watched the progress of the storm on TV. When there's bad weather, the local channels suspend usual programmes and provide continous coverage, with live radar information, webcams, and analysis. It's pretty slick (in fact it's frequently far more entertaining than the programmes it replaces). At one point it seemed like a tornado might develop on the southern side of OKC (we live on the north side, luckily, and the weather was travelling south-east) but despite the classic 'donut-hole' formation developing, it didn't produce a tornado.
I'm also entranced by what seems to be a standard gauge for measuring the size of hailstones, which revolves around monetary currency and types of sports balls. Hail is described as 'dime-size', 'nickel-size', 'quarter-size', and then 'ping-pong ball sized', 'golf ball sized', 'tennis ball sized', and 'baseball-sized'. For a while I wasn't sure whether a ping-pong ball or a golf ball was larger, but apparently it's the golf ball. I'm still not sure whether or not a baseball is larger than a tennis ball, maybe because I've had no personal experience of baseball, and don't really have much of an idea how big a baseball is. Assuming it's roughly the size of a cricket ball, then it probably is larger than a tennis ball, but hmm... not sure. One I thing I do know is I wouldn't want to be outside in any of it!

3 comments:

Pamela said...

I love your blog! I am just crying laughing at your adventures with the Oklahomans - I know several and they take their three-times-a-week church habit with them wherever they go! I'm an American but British at heart (my British Mum did that to me!) and I am really enjoying reading your views on your new life in America. I haven't made it all the way back to the beginning of your blog but I'm assuming that there is a reason for your blog's name!

Andrew said...

Thank you! Where in the US do you live? How did you come across my blog?

Andrew said...

OK, I've worked out the first one (Rhode Island...)