The 15th Anniversary Of The Mayfest Storm & My Introduction To Texas Hail Terror

May 5 was the 15th Anniversary of what is known in these parts as "The Mayfest Storm." This was a rather BIG Weather Event.

Without warning a large cluster of thunderstorms bore down on over 10,000 attendees at Mayfest in Trinity Park, on the west side of downtown Fort Worth.

Hail the size of softballs began to pummel the Mayfesters at 7:10 pm. Over 400 people were injured, 60 sufficiently serious hospitalization was required.

As the storms marched east, heavy rain drenched parts of Tarrant and Dallas Counties. In various ways the storm killed fifteen people in Dallas County, with one dead in Tarrant County. Some victims drove into flash floods and were swept away. Two fell into high water and drowned. Two were killed by lightning. Two were killed when the rain caused a roof to collapse.

Hundreds of cars were damaged by the hail. In the end, all the property and human damage resulted in one of the costliest storms in history, with around $2 billion in damages.

I first heard of "The Mayfest Storm" after moving to Texas. I have no memory of reading of the news of this disaster while I was still in Washington. Obviously it was big news. It just did not register with me.

The first I heard of "The Mayfest Storm" came about when I found myself in a Spring of 1999 storm with one of the victims of "The Mayfest Storm."

Big Ed and I had been mountain biking at Dinosaur Valley, prior to heading to a Dude Ranch, south of Cleburne, to meet up with, well, let's call them Mrs. Gifford and Jolene, for a Riscky's catered BBQ feeding.

Mrs. Gifford and Jolene had stayed overnight at the Dude Ranch to go on some big group horse ride. However, that next morning, when the ride was to take place, Jolene, who used to ride horses all the time, found that she'd grown too big to get on a horse. So, Jolene was put on a buckboard and followed the horseriders in bumpy buckboard comfort that rendered Jolene a grumpy non-horserider.

Let me see if I can find a picture of Jolene from that Dude Ranch Day. Okay, there she is with the horse she was unable to mount. If I remember right, its name was Caution.

The BBQ went fine. Afterwards it was decided Jolene would ride back to Fort Worth with me, while Big Ed drove Mrs. Gifford's horse trailer rig.

On the way north we could see a lot of lightning strikes. It was around 10 pm. Heading north on Interstate 35, the weather grew increasingly dire. This was very early in my Texas exile, so the EXTREME weather was still totally new to me.

Suddenly, we were in a heavy heavy downpour, the likes of which I'd never seen. The freeway slowed to a crawl, as in 10mph.

And then all HELL broke loose. With lightning striking all around, huge balls of hail started hitting my windshield. Jolene started screaming, as if we were being shot at by a mad assassin. Next thing I know, Jolene is crawling to the back seat, like Jackie Kennedy trying to crawl out of the Presidential Limousine in Dallas.

Eventually, I came to a stop under the I-20/I-35 Mixmaster to wait it out. I learned later doing this is a big no-no. I asked Jolene why in the world she so totally panicked.

That is when she told me about "The Mayfest Storm." She was in it. And her new little Ford Pinto car was totalled by that storm. She'd seen windshields, including hers, blown out by hail, hence the panicked crawl to the backseat.

It would be another year or so til I had another close encounter with BIG hail, that being the afternoon of March 28, 2000, when Fort Worth was struck by a tornado. Where I lived, at the time, we were struck by golf ball size hail. I had never heard anything make such a loud noise. I can't imagine what softball size hail would be like.

Wait, I take that back. I have been hit on the head by a softball. When I was 6. It is what caused my lifelong aversion to baseball. I was bored to the max in the outfield, not paying any attention to the boring game I'd been forced to play, when a ball was hit my way, landing on my head. It hurt.

I imagine getting hit on the head by a softball size hail ball would hurt worse than a softball.