Violent rain/hailstorm in Colorado Springs

Early Monday afternoon, I went into the backyard to check on my vegetable garden. Rain was imminent, so I quickly plucked a few veggies and went back inside as raindrops began to ping down. In under a minute, things went from a light sprinkle to a violently heavy rainstorm that showed no signs of stopping. After about half an hour, pea sized hail started to come down with the rain. It only got more intense from there. I don't know if I've ever seen such a heavy volume of water pouring down from the sky. It lasted for well over an hour. There was so much rain and hail (which thankfully didn't get larger than pea sized, if you want to look on the bright side) that the roads in our neighborhood were completely overwhelmed with water, hailstones and debris. We were trapped in our house! (In fact, Pat had to cancel his dentist appointment because there was no way he'd have been able to drive anywhere.) Soon we were seeing videos on our Facebook feeds of motorists stranded in rushing rapids where the streets were supposed to be. It was INSANE. Our poor little cat was terrified, running around the house in a vain search for a hiding place from the unholy din. I got a little bit of video of our back patio and a few pictures of the aftermath. The photo at the top of this post is our backyard after the storm finally died down.

Here's a video captured a few blocks to the west of our house, to give you an idea of how intense it all was:  https://www.facebook.com/james.kleiber.5/videos/10154322777965926/

Here's another one, taken just around the corner from the above video:  https://www.facebook.com/kktv11news/videos/10154156831273381/

And here's a photo gallery and news article about it on the Gazette's site:  http://gazette.com/storm-leaves-parts-of-colorado-springs-looking-like-a-hurricane-came-through/article/1584429

More than 24 hours after the storm, there were crews still cleaning up huge amounts of hail. Thankfully the rain held off while cleanup took place, and let's keep our fingers crossed that Mother Nature cooperates for the next few days.

Here's a short video I took of our back patio during part of the storm (but not the worst part). You have to appreciate how wet my feet got in these 13 seconds -- and I was standing inside the house!

After the storm died down, I had some clients to meet at my studio at 3:45, so off I went. Even after making the drive, there was still a lot of debris and hail stuck to my car.

Later on, I had a chance to check out the carnage in my garden. This basil plant had been bright green and healthy before the storm. Now the leaves are bruised, blackened and shredded.

This jalapeno plant fared even worse.

And look at this poor zucchini plant! This morning, on closer inspection I could see that the individual zucchinis were completely pitted and ruined from the hail. The same goes for my pumpkins, green peppers and cucumbers. I think the rhubarb is a goner too. Sigh.

Here's a photo I took with my cell phone late yesterday afternoon, more than 24 hours after the storm had passed. (Yes that's hail.) This is on Logan and Platte, about half a mile west of our house. As I took this picture, there were three TV news trucks on hand, two from Colorado Springs and one from Denver, interviewing residents and filming the mess -- you can see the KRDO van on the left side of the frame. I have a friend who lives on Logan and Kiowa (in the near distance, a block from where I stood to take this picture), and her basement was flooded. Some of these homes are now uninhabitable. The father of one of my friends lives on this street and has been displaced. There's a GoFundMe set up to help him out. If you want to help, you can donate HERE.