THE BEST VIEW: 8:00 p.m., welcome to Florida rainy season
by Norma Best Boucher
I stand in my kitchen at the open refrigerator door trying to find where I hid my half-eaten chocolate bar. I foolishly did NOT eat the entire bar and left the remainder of the chocolate in the original foil packaging on my passenger side car seat. This was only for mere minutes, but as a result, the Florida heat melted the other half. To save what was left of the chocolate, I put the melted part into the refrigerator to harden.
Indiscriminately, I tear away at the refrigerated food to find the lost bar when I hear what sounds like repeated rifle fire striking my three sliding glass doors and sunroof.
Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!
At first, I stand there shocked. I quickly break out of that stupor and move semi-frantically in circles making instant decisions like, “Where do I hide?”
I duck down fast behind the kitchen sink island, listen carefully for the invasion and wait.
The rat-a-tat-tats come in waves now. First, they are frantic, then they stop, and then they are frantic again.
I think about this: lots of sound but no broken glass or bullets flying into the condo.
On hands and knees, I crawl out from behind the island, look around, and check my bearings. All senses heightened, I pause.
Suddenly, my cell phone and two televisions simultaneously blare out in deafening decibels, “Warning! Warning!”
Still on my hands and knees, I hurry back to the protection of the island.
“Warning!” comes from one TV.
“Rat-a-tat-tat!” comes from the sunroof.
“Warning!” comes from the other TV.
“Rat-a-tat-tats!” come from all three sliding glass doors.
The two televisions scream at me, “Tornado warning! Tornado warning! Go to your safe spots NOW!”
I rise and race to my inside bathroom. On the way I see nickel-sized hail striking my glass doors. I grab a pillow as I pass my bed.
8:00 pm – I stand in the shower, put the pillow over my head, and pray.
8:15 p.m. – The danger passes. No funnel hits land. The supercell continues out to the ocean.
Welcome to the 2023 Florida rainy season.
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Who thought hail could be so destructive ! Great description of the storm and your reaction to it!!!
I live in Florida. The storms have just begun to fire up across the state this past day or so in full force. But when I was 17 I lived in Reno Nevada and we once got a thunderstorm that summer with quarter to half dollar sized hail. I saw the warning on the computer and yelled at the neighbors to get the cars in the garage. They looked at my young face confused until the hail started up. Cracked one of our wind shields. We didn’t have a garage to put the car in because it was full of stuff.