May 26, 2009 Weatherford, TX Hailstorm

The outlook for May 26th appeared even slightly better, with high CAPE forecast
along a boundary between Wichita Falls and Fort Worth.  We visited the Hollis
"Bridge of Doom" on our drive from Shamrock to Quanah, TX.  The guests enjoyed
the solitude and scenery as they walked above the Red River.  As we grouped
together for some photos on the TX side of the bridge, a very large swarm of
bees came right at us from the southeast!  The twenty of us ducked down a little
and the bees continued on, fortunately.  Those were a scary 30 seconds!  A storm
initiated in some hot and somewhat humid air at Weatherford, and dropped some
large hail near the town.  We got on the back edge of the storm and then came
around on the south side on I-20.  This storm was high-based, with long hail
shafts visible in the sunshine.  The storm chased us slowly into the western
fringes of the DFW Metroplex.  We weren't interested in dealing with rush-hour
traffic there, so we rode out the storm's precip core beneath a convenience
store cover.  Hail size was nearly one inch in diameter.  Another batch of
thunderstorms was out west, so we enjoyed a nighttime lightning display before
getting to our rooms in Abilene.