Space City was pelted with pea-sized hail Monday morning, as a cluster of storms drifted across the region in the heart of rush hour traffic.
Thanks to the human being's ability to drive and operate a smartphone at the same time — which, for the record, CultureMap does not condone — commuters tweeted hail locations from southwest Houston to areas north of downtown.
Other Twitter posts couldn't resist the hail's uncanny arrival following the sudden and surprising resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. Here's a personal favorite from one of our regular readers:
And the Lord said, 'Should the Pope ever abdicate, I will send 7 Plagues to Houston, the first of which, shall be hail.'" — @KyleJack
According to meteorologist Chris McKinney from the National Weather Service, hail was first reported at 8:25 a.m. around Beltway 8 and Gessner. Hail incidents continued for the next half hour, from Bellaire to West University Place to Memorial to around downtown.
"We mostly heard reports of pea- to dime-sized ice. Luckily, it wasn't large enough to create problems."
"We mostly heard reports of pea- to dime-sized ice," McKinney tells CultureMap.
"Luckily, it wasn't large enough to create problems. You need the hail to be at least the size of a nickel to cause damage. Quarter-sized hail almost certainly can cause dents."
While the strongest storm cells have passed, McKinney says the newly-arrived cold front and continuing rain storms still could produce minor amounts of hail in the area throughout Monday.
Click through the slideshow above for more Houston hail pics.
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Photo by Leonid Furmansky