I took Patrick, my oldest son, over to join them; leaving the house around 6:45 PM or so. There had just been a very brief shower (with very fat drops I now recall) and we'd waited till it slackened before taking off on Valencia, my 2011 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig.
We got almost halfway there and then the heavens opened up and it started pouring rain and hailing pea-sized hail on top of us. At first, it wasn't too bad or too heavy, the hail, but it got worse fast!
Soon we were both racing through the driving rain, hail bouncing off every part of us and the sidecar. Poor Patrick just leaned forward and let the helmet he was wearing take most of the impacts. The only place I felt the hail was in the upper chest area and on my hands, clad only in summer riding gloves! That hail stung!
We made it to the apartment complex, its inner streets running heavily with water it was raining so hard. I found the right apartment complex and quickly pulled into an open sheltered parking spot. Patrick and I then waited out the worst of the rain and hail while in the meantime the neighborhood Tornado Sirens were wailing!
Probably not the best of times to go riding I think.
A shot of the rain and falling hail
We had pulled into one of the covered parking areas belonging
to some resident.
A radar picture of the storms at 7:00PM AFTER
they'd gone overhead as we rode along!
We were under the bottom-most group of red radar signatures.
they'd gone overhead as we rode along!
We were under the bottom-most group of red radar signatures.
As I write this, my county and several others are under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning (No Kidding) and two counties to the SE of us are under Tornado Warning. Not quite the peaceful sunset we had yesterday, but then again, that's what weather in Colorado can be like!
As I finish this, that's what's overhead of us....apparently, it's orbiting
so we're going to get a good amount of rain I think.
If things start flooding, which they do when really heavy rain hits here, I may have to go riding again!
5 comments:
Ride on! Hail not my favorite thing, but sometimes you just got to get where you can stop.
I suspect it's safe to assume this is one ride Patrick isn't going to forget.
~Keith
Patrick didn't look too amused at the whole thing or at least didn't care to be the subject of the video. Hail, not very fun...
Yowch!! I've been pelted with that size hail while riding. Thank goodness it didn't last as long as your exposure. But I can agree that those things sting! And being on two wheels, it was feeling a little like riding on marbles.
Good luck with the coming storms.
Neither rain, nor hail, nor tornados shall keep the true Uralista from his appointed rounds. Good thing you wear helmets! :)
Summer or winter you are always pushing the limits.
We had hail here for a few minutes on Friday afternoon but only tiny little beads.
Love the videos you make.
Steve Williams
Scooter in the Sticks
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