Yesterday when I left work it looked like there was a storm to the south (the direction I was heading.) It wasn't yet raining in the downtown area. The storm wasn't in the forecast and just suddenly formed, so I didn't ride my fendered bike. My son was playing at a golf tournament and I had to pick him up, so I decided it was in my best interest to ride hard and get home before the rain started, then grab my truck and head to the golf course to pick him up.

As it turned out, other than an occasional sprinkled raindrop, I didn't hit any rain the whole way home.

My son just a couple miles away, however, turned into another story. He and his group were on the 6th hole as far from the clubhouse as they could get while still being on the course when the clouds suddenly grew dark above them. I later watched the replay of the radar and the storm quite literally formed on top of the golf course. It started to rain hard. He and his group abandoned their bags and huddled under a tree hoping the rain would quickly pass and they could continue playing.

Then the winds rose to 70+ mph, lightning started striking around them and large hail started to fall. Being 14 year-old boys they got spooked when the tree they were under started to creak in the wind, and they decided to run for the clubhouse which at this point was at least a mile away. The group separated to retrieve their clubs and head back to the clubhouse.

Being that it was a tournament, all the players on the course were walking. The course was sending out carts to rescue stranded golfers, but after a few minutes the carts were getting stuck in the mud, piles of hail and impassably deep water from the flash flooding. About halfway back a course official on a cart went by my son and he hopped on, but after riding around for a few minutes they came across three other carts sitting in a low area with water up to the seats. They realized there was no way the cart was making it back to the clubhouse so they abandoned it and finished the journey back on foot.

He finally made it back. Other than being soaking wet, bruised from the hail and extremely tired he was fine. They're supposed to have the 2nd round of the tournament today, but as of last night he was still a bit spooked from the ordeal and wasn't sure if he was going to play or not.

Here's some of the hail: