Free Republic

A 3,000-acre solar farm 40 miles from Houston, Texas, was massively damaged on March 15 when huge chunks of hail fell from the sky and shattered hundreds of panels, leaving the facility running at “reduced capacity.” From the look of the pictures, it would seem that it’s operating at heavily reduced capacity.A hailstorm this month has damaged thousands of solar panels at the 350-MW Fighting Jays Solar Farm in Fort Bend County, Texas, “Golf ball”-sized hail fell in the area on March 15, and aerial footage captured from a helicopter offered a glimpse at the extent of the damage pic.twitter.com/3G4SkaRTLI—...

Renewable energy is the alternative that Democrats and other environmental nuts want to replace reliable oil, gas and coal. But time and time again, people who rely on wind and solar power have had to learn the tough lesson that such alternatives are both undependable and susceptible to the same elements they are supposed to harness. Nowhere was that more true than in Nebraska, where a thunderstorm dumped baseball-sized hail on a solar farm on Friday at a speed of 150 mph — destroying the facility in just a few minutes. Cowboy State Daily reported a storm moved east out...

Mexico City was pummeled by an intense hailstorm on Sunday. There was chaos on the roads as a thick blanket of ice formed over the asphalt. Several homes and business were damaged by the severe weather. A hail storm left Mexico City in chaos Sunday, knocking down trees, flooding streets and causing the collapse of a supermarket’s ceiling.

A severe thunderstorm buried the Mexican municipalities of Naucalpan, Atizapán de Zaragoza, Tlalnepantla and Huixquilucan, in more than 1 foot (60 cms) of hail and transforming streets into raging rivers. The storm started around 6:20 p.m. and lasted for approximately 20 minutes. Apocalyptic, no? During the storms, a man died of hyperthermia after being trapped in his car. There are no reports of bad injuries. More than 30 houses, an hospital and a governmental office have been flooded as streets became raging rivers. Meanwhile, more than 300 government workers have been deployed to help residents.

One of Mexico's largest cities was transformed into a scene straight out of winter Sunday when a freak hailstorm dropped a deluge of ice that left streets impassable and cars buried. The hailstorm in Guadalajara, located north of Mexico City, came after several days during which temperatures approached 90 degrees. "I've never seen such scenes in Guadalajara," State Governor Enrique Alfaro said on Twitter. Residents across the city of around five million woke up Sunday morning to discover mounds of ice up to five feet deep in places from the overnight storm, Agence France-Presse reported.

This evening there was a torrential downpour in Colorado Springs, CO, with hailstones ranging from 1" to 3+" in size. The damage occurred mostly on the northeast to southeast side of town and is now moving off onto the plains. Windshields and house windows smashed, roads flooded with rain and hailstones, police were asking everyone to stay indoors. I live on the southwest side of town and was aware of the violence of the storms, but didn't get much here.

The beach at Southern California's "Surf City" has been turned white by a dumping of hail from a fast-moving storm. The National Weather Service says at least an inch of icy pellets coated the sand at Huntington Beach after the system roared ashore Monday morning.

Hail pounds Oklahoma City as severe storms move across region Strong to severe thunderstorms are moving through Oklahoma this afternoon. Published: May 16, 2010 Severe thunderstorms are tracking across Oklahoma, including one storm responsible for a tornado warning near Kingfisher this afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. No tornadoes have been reported, and the warning was allowed to expire. Most of central and eastern Oklahoma, including the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metro areas, is under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m., and large hail, tornadoes and heavy downpours possible, forecasters said. The storm prompted the tornado warning near...

BEIRUT, Nov 20 (Reuters) - A hailstorm has caused hundreds of cluster bombs to explode in south Lebanon, the National News Agency said on Tuesday. The cluster bombs were dropped by Israel during its war with Hezbollah guerrillas last year. The hailstones, as big as walnuts, fell in a number of valleys in south Lebanon, the agency said.

Hailstorms cause pesto shortage in Italy By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer Mon Aug 21, 5:24 PM ET Lovers of pesto, the tangy green pasta sauce, are bracing for increased prices or even shortages after unseasonable hailstorms in northern Italy destroyed much of the most prized variety of basil, the key ingredient in the Genoese specialty. Hailstones the size of tennis balls smashed glass panes on scores of greenhouses and pummeled fragile basil plants this month, wiping out entire crops near the town of Pra, west of Genoa, the capital of the Liguria region in northwest Italy. "The heart of...

/begin my translation China: Egg-sized Hails Pound Shenyang Flood in Heilungjian Province, and now hail damage in Shenyang Following the flood in Heilungjian Province, this time, egg-sized hails pounded Shenyang, another in the recent string of  unusual weather conditions in China. At 6:46pm on June 21, hailstorm started to the city of Shenyang, China, causing extensive damages. House windows were broken, trees on the street fell down. There were over 200 reports of broken phone connection.The Weather Agency in Shenyang explained, "There is no time to issue warning. Hailstorm came so abruptly." It went on to say, "Hot air near the ground and the cold air above...

For 60 years the skeletal remains of more than 200 people, discovered in 1942 close to the glacial Roopkund Lake in the remote Himalayan Gahrwal region, have puzzled historians, scientists and archaeologists. Were they soldiers killed in battle, royal pilgrims who lost their way and succumbed to hypothermia, or Tibetan traders who died of a mysterious illness? Now, the first forensic investigation of one of the area's most enduring mysteries has concluded that hundreds of nomads - whose frozen corpses are being disgorged from ice high in the mountain - were killed by one of the most lethal hailstorms in...

Microsoft Has Shelved Its Internet 'Persona' Service By JOHN MARKOFF AN FRANCISCO, April 10 — Microsoft (news/quote) has quietly shelved a consumer information service that was once planned as the centerpiece of the company's foray into the market for tightly linked Web services.The service, originally code-named Hailstorm and later renamed My Services, was to be the clearest example of the company's ambitious .Net strategy. It was intended to permit an individual to keep an online persona independent of his or her desktop computer, supposedly safely stored as part of a vast data repository where there could be easy access to...