Largest Hailstone In New Mexico History

In June 1981 I was working as a wilderness ranger in the Sandia Mountains just outside Albuquerque. Two hang gliders were preparing to take off as a thunderstorm built up. We warned them not to go, but they didn’t listen. One of them got taken up to 40,000 feet and landed in a tree frozen solid 10 miles away.

ScreenHunter_22 Jul. 04 10.34

The Bulletin – Google News Archive Search

We watched Chris fly down the front face of the mountains. He was obviously scared and stayed just above the rocks, to keep out of the updraft. We also saw Bob disappear in the clouds.

New Mexico gets lots of hail because of the frequent summer thunderstorms which top out at high altitudes.

Hail ranks as the most frequent type of severe weather in New Mexico, and it is responsible for a considerable percentage of property and crop damage.

www.srh.noaa.gov/ssd/techmemo/sr207.htm

h/t to T.O.O.

About Tony Heller

Just having fun
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Largest Hailstone In New Mexico History

  1. chris y says:

    “h/t to T.O.O.”

    🙂 🙂 🙂

  2. Blade says:

    Okay, here’s what I suspect. That guy T.O.O. is either …

    “physicist” or “Ill Wind Blowing” or maybe both 😉

    I see some marked similarities with “physicist”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *