Don't try this with an umbrella

[latexstorm]

Am I completely nuts when I see a video like this, and the first thing I think is how much fun it would be to be outside in this wearing layers of heavy raingear? We just don't get weather like this in the Pacific Northwest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac4Fz1CBwcA

[blackmacjay]

Tough luck on us I guess but we do see weather like this in the middle of Arizona's monsoon time each summer.

And the hail can really make a mess of cars.

[Bill_P]

Yeah here in the Midwest we get maybe one or two good storms like this a year, and always when I'm stuck in my office and can only listen to it beat down on the roof. Sadly I've never known the pleasure of running around all rubbered up in a hailstorm, with all that heavy rain & wind, dodging falling tree branches, hail stones bouncing off my heavy rubber sou'wester. Need to find an excuse to get away from work when one of these storms hit next summer.

[RainMacFan]

We do get the occasional hailstorm here in Geneva and the surrounding region, and believe me, you don't want to be out in one - the wind speeds can top 120Km/h (75 mph) and the hailstones can be up to the size of hen's eggs. I watched that one from the comfort of the office!

[latexstorm]

There are definitely limits on what's possible (and safe), even in heavy raingear. I've done OK in a storm with quarter-size hail, but I would not want to have been caught in that unprepared.

Come to think of it, we shared a clear vinyl umbrella during the worst of that one...so much for the thread title. The whole thing made for an interesting conversation with the people staying in the condo next to ours, but we were on vacation, and I wasn't going to miss the fun just because we were noticed.