Hail storm yesterday

About 5 p.m., just before quiting time at the Toyota Dealership where I work, the skies got real dark. Few minutes later, the biggest downpour I have ever seen in my life, with such high winds, that it was raining sideways and then the dreaded hail stones. You couldnt hear anyone talking above the noise of the stones hitting the roof of the building and some of us thought a twister was about to visit us. This lasted about 15 minutes, died down for a few and then came on again with more force than before. When it was finally over, and we were able to get outside, most of the car alarms were going off, and we knew there was some serious damage to all the new cars and trucks including my new truck.

The Toyotas all suffered hail damage, but not as bad as the used cars, particulary, the Jeeps and Fords which suffered major damage to the sheet metal. (thinner sheet metal?)
Insurance estimates put the damage at over 2 million, not including damage to the building.
No clue as to how much damage costs are on my truck just yet, but if you flip the coin, we were all damn lucky no one got hurt.

 

Just last week the same thing happened at my house. The hail was the size of large marbles. I just sat there thinking how pissed i was gonna be if my truck was dented up. fortunately there was no damage. How do you fix a fleet of vehicles with hail damage? do you actually knock out all the dings or just replace the damaged sheet metal? I assume you just knock out the dents unless they are bad enough for the paint to chip when you do that. Glad nobody was hurt

 

Almost every year here in St. Louis, MO there are hail damage liquidations at the Car dealerships because a of a hail storm that damaged a new vehicle... I don't know if it is an excuse to get the public into the dealership and buy cars or if the dealership's insurance has a clause that is beneficial to both the insurance company and the dealership to sell those vehicles at a discounted price to the public without fixing them...

 

That is crazy! Sorry to hear about your truck.

My wife got into a wreck and the insurance company wouldn't total the car. The next week, it was sitting at the body shop about to be repaired when a hail storm finished the job. $25,000 to a $19,000 Honda Accord.

Hail damage can be very difficult to repair. It is easier to ignore (unless it is glass).

 

Thats pretty interesting, i wonder if it is just easier to collect the insurence check and then sell the damaged cars?

 

We took another hit again today, second hail storm to come our way. Is this a freak thing?
This time we had some warning, and filled up the showroom, plus the service area with new cars and trucks that arrived in the morning. I managed to get my truck in also.
Dent Wizzard sent in crews from as far away as Georgia to repair our cars and cars from other dealerships in the area. They worked thruout the night and many more nights to come.

Hopefully, I will try and get pics of all this and post it later.

This was todays weather report:
A strong cold front will move quickly across NY State and Western New England by tonight.

With this front and ahead of it we have what meteorologists call "favorable" ingredients for severe weather- strong jetstreams in the low and upper levels of the atmosphere and air that is warm and moist enough to make it unstable.

This unstable air will rise upwards during this afternoon aided by the strong jetstreams and approaching cold front, resulting in scattered showers and storms. Storms today will probably be severe with large hail and damaging winds the main threat.

The wet weather will end early tonight followed by drier and more settled conditions overnight through tomorrow morning.

Another weak colder front moves through tomorrow afternoon and it could cause another round of scattered afternoon showers/storms.

The weekend will be okay but cool, especially on Saturday. Sunday may see some more scattered afternoon convection but not a washout. more...Sincerely,
Meteorologist Andy Gregorio

 

Damn man that is some crazy stuff, it got real dark by me in Jersey but we never got any rain or hail.

 

Whoa that's insane!!!!! sorry to hear that but atleast you and your family are doing ok

 

I left my truck inside my garage all week. I drove the wifes car around.