[AT] Now NC twisters: was Mina problem

[Dean Vinson]

Grant, I'm very sorry to hear of the crop damage you suffered--that must be
terribly frustrating.

And, speaking as a more-or-less lifetime resident of the Midwest, an inch of
hail is serious business wherever it falls!

Hope your spring sale was productive--and if nothing else, good on you for
making the best of a tough situation.

Dean Vinson
Dayton, Ohio
www.vinsonfarm.net



-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Grant Brians
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 7:25 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Now NC twisters: was Mina problem

On April 7th we had a freak Thunderstorm here in the Santa Clara Valley of
California. Normally we rarely get thunderstorms and we only get hail once
in a while. During that day, at two of the ranches I farm about half a mile
apart (but not at the other two ranches, one of which was less than three
miles away as the crow flies) we received 5 separate periods of hail. In
total about an inch of hail fell as part of the total 1.2" of precipitation
during the 5 hour time period.
     Now I know what you people in the midwest and Southeast are thinking -
"that hardly counts as precipitation let alone hail!" But remember this is
coastal Central California where we "almost never" get hail and certainly
not in April! So, the problem is that the hail damaged my Spinach, Miners
Lettuce, Baby Lettuce and various other Baby Greens crops from bruising and
it also knocked off many of the fruit tree blossoms - all of these being
major crops for me and in the types of local crops that are grown. So the
result ended up being a loss well over $10,000 for my farm, all because of
less than an hour of hail falling during a part of one day from a small
Thunderstorm. And as noted by others in this thread, these types of storms
are usually ones that only "touch down" in certain spots deemingly for
unclear reasons....
     So there is my "hail tale of woe" and to recover a little bit from it,
we ran a Farmers Market "Hail Spring Sale" on the weekend to try to recover
a little from this.....

         Grant Brians
         Hollister,California