They Make Everything Big In Texas. Including Hailstorms

LOTS of hail in western Texas on Monday. It didn't help
travel too much. Photo by Tony Laubach.  

I know. Winter wasn't that long ago, and the thought still makes you shudder, which means you are probably horrified by the photo in this post.

It's not a snowstorm, though. (Though it did manage to snow a couple of inches up in North Dakota during the past weekend.)

No, the photo by Tony Laubach is of a hailstorm near Pecos, in the western part of Texas. It accumulated a foot deep, and as you can see, didn't exactly help travel much.

Texas has been the epicenter of storminess this spring, with frequent floods, hailstorms, tornadoes and supercell thunderstorms.

An El Nino weather pattern seems to be developing, and that seems to favor wet weather and storms in Texas.

Flash flood watches and warnings are up for much of Texas today and perhaps through the rest of the week, as up to eight inches of rain are forecast for the next few days in northern Texas.

Parts of Texas, especially to the west, might get some more severe storms and hail today and tomorrow. 

By the way, some strong storms are forecast in New England, including my home turf in Vermont, could produce some gusty winds and hail today. But nothing like in Texas.

My new hostas might get dinged with a little hail today outside my St. Albans, Vermont home, but I probably won't be shoveling a foot of hail out of my driveway, so that's good.

Here's StormChasingVideo.com's view of the Pesos, Texas hailstorm.