Hail, yes!

We had a big thunderstorm!! This is exciting news to me. I am definitely a midwesterner at heart. I enjoy a good rumbly thunderstorm. To me, that rumbly thunder is comforting. I am not talking about tornado producing storms, severe electrical storms, damaging storms of some variety at all. I just like to curl up in a chair and listen to thunder as the rain pitter patters on my window.

It is a common belief that because we live in Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, we get rain. A LOT of rain. All year long - rain. Every day - rain. Well, I hate to be the one to pop that bubble for you, but that doesn't happen across the southwestern portion of the state of Oregon. We get a fair amount of rain throughout the winter months, a bit in the spring and seemingly none in the summer and fall - although there might be some in the fall and I just forget! Because we really don't get much rain in the summers in our area, we also aren't experiencing thunderstorms. I had recently been wishing for a good rumbly thunderstorm. 

Well, wishes DO come true and I was lucky to hear a good many rumbles yesterday!! There was a little bit of lightning and quite a bit of hail. We didn't experience any damage, so all that extra on top of the thunder worked out just fine for us.

About an hour and a half after the storm had cleared, I got a phone call from "unknown caller unknown number." I figured it was Pops in a normal dropped call area. So, I picked up and heard, "Hello, I am calling from the National Weather Service at the Severe Weather Center. I am hoping that you can answer some questions about the weather system that just passed through your area."

"Uh, ok. Sure."

We went on to chat for just under ten minutes about the hail, rain and wind that our little town received. I didn't realize that there were surveys done regarding weather. Have you ever been called by the National Weather Service?