Tuesday, October 5, 2004

A day which started out clear, with no hint of anything bad about to happen. ArielMT had nothing better to do during the five hours between classes than to go on a day trip from Socorro to Las Cruces and back.

Before the afternoon was out, hailstorms swept across New Mexico, and Socorro was hit with the storm of the century.

The stones that fell were on average the size of softballs. After the storm passed, and the sun returned, the stones remained larger than golf balls three hours later.

At the time, I owned a Ford Tempo that was near its end. Had I gone east or west, I would've been hit. Had I gone north, I would've been hit harder, but not nearly as hard as I would've had I stayed put. In any event, my Tempo would've been a total loss.

I went south and missed the storm completely. I missed a storm that, by rights, I should've been trapped in.

I don't own the Tempo anymore, and I picked up a Subaru Legacy Outback that was in the Wal-Mart parking lot on that fateful day. (Team Subaru Hailstorm Rally?)

--ArielMT

Sources

Places documenting the storm.

Damage at Tech reaches $15 mil - El Defensor Chieftain

City, county begin process for disaster aid - El Defensor Chieftain

The official Socorro Hailstorm site - New Mexico Tech via Internet Archive. [ All dates ]