Stormreport: 80mph+ Winds, Hail, Lightning at the Beach

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Rant - Stormreport: 80mph+ Winds, Hail, Lightning at the Beach

I'm back on lake Michigan for a few days. It's been hot and humid. Any corn-fed midwesterner knows long hot days mean thunderstorms. A BIG storm system came through about an hour ago with gusts reported almost up to 100mph and hail up to quarter inch around. This is a photo my brother took as beach goers fled the approaching front.

I'd rate the surf a poor-, maybe poor-- due to cloud-to-ground lightning and hurricane force winds.

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rant by tracey
5 comments

tcannon
1 year ago

Wow. I thought it was bad here. I mentally raced a kite surfer this afternoon, me in my Jeep on the Great Highway and him on his board. I hit the timed lights, 35mph right on the nose and just watched him easily pull into the lead and zip away from me going well over 40mph.

I wonder how fast (s)he could get going in 100mph gusts?

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tracey
1 year ago

Assuming the kiter didn't get struck by lightning, I'd say really freaking fast.

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ob-kc.com
1 year ago

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tehdely
1 year ago

I couldn't help but laugh when that "big" lightning storm hit SF a few months ago and *gosh* knocked out a transmitter. Friends of mine the next day were sharing about how they were sure, absolutely SURE, that 9/11 had happened in SF, since they'd apparently never heard thunder outside of a movie.

I reminded them that where I'm from, the sky turns green and all hell breaks loose.

Thanks for the reminder :) Hope I can catch a bit of that when I head home in August.

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Kooktastic
1 year ago

The attainable groundspeeds by kitesurfers or windsurfers is probably not linear to windspeed. When the wind gets stronger, typically they have to use smaller sails because they're limited by their own physical strength.

I know, I'm a partypooper.

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