Father's Day Storm Cell

After an impressive introductory crack of thunder, we just witnessed a severe storm cell that lasted probably 20-25 minutes. It was, I think, the most intense prolonged hail event that I've ever witnessed in this Vancouver region. No visible accumulations of hail remained after the cell passed and the pellets were only pea-sized, but they surely came down "with intensity"! (That phrase always plays in my my mind with a thick Japanese accent from that scene in Lost in Translation.)

 

 

2014-06-16 update: Apparently that storm system wasn't finished with us. At about 1:30 a.m. I was jolted awake with what can only be described as a ferocious blast of thunder. It induced a panic that one might expect if a tree crashed through the roof without notice. With my adrenaline now pumping it took another hour or so to fall back asleep.

It would be interesting for me to have experienced an Asian monsoon rain event to enable me to fairly compare the intensity (there's that word again) of rainfall that accompanied the vicious thunder clap. Allowing for the fact that I've never traveled to Asia, in my humble opinion last night's rain certainly qualified as torrential.