Hail in Valdosta... finally!!! (Dewvoid, voided again?!)

What an exciting day today was!!!! I had known that there was a potential for rain and weather today... but most of it had past... or so we thought. As I was preparing my afternoon chai, I noticed cumulus towers rising around town, literally stood and watched them boil over, as I waited for my water to boil. When I left the office, things had really fired up, towers climbing up tens of thousands of feet into the air. My first thought... INSTABILITY!!!I sent a comment and picture saying as much to some of the Brigade members and my wonderful groom (who against better judgment had left the doors off his jeep when he went to work this evening... oops.) So, I sent him a message encouraging him to put the top up on his jeep, at least.

As I was headed home to meet my friend at the house, I encountered the outer rain swath of one of those magnificent towers. Then, my wonderful groom, who was about a quarter of a mile further west down the road from where I was sent me a text message (about a mile from the interstate)... HAIL!!!he measured it to be about 3/4". Just after receiving the text from him, my rain turned to HAIL!!! Hail, yeah!!! :D I was thrilled beyond words. I took the long way around to the house, enjoying the heavy downpours and occasional tink, tink of hail pounding on the windshield. I also called the weather service to report the hail. :D I briefly met with my friend, watching a briefly rotating lowering in the cloud base over my house (which the Weather Service office did not see anything to support; however, the same cell showed 3 directional shear just northeast of here on radar), which she also witnessed and it made her very nervous. She then decided to head home when the weather radio announced another approaching here. She wanted to get home and above all of it. I checked it out on radio. It had merged into a monstrous line of yuck, but I was hungry for more hail, so I decided to go for a little ride. I headed out to Lakeland, and I actually came across another hail core with some small hail bouncing on my windshield. Then, I was done, and I headed back home. Upon arrival, I found an email from a former co-worker and fellow weather geek who lives a couple of hundred yards from the interstate off the same road I had been on originally, and she shared pics with me. She told me she doesn't mind me sharing her pics, so here... Thank you so much, Emily F. for sharing!!! She sized it at dime-sized, possibly nickel-sized at the largest.

Exciting!
~Dew