All Hail... Hail?

This past week Albuquerque held their annual Balloon Fiesta, which is the largest of its kind in the United States, and the most photographed festival in the world. Last weekend we were planning on attending at least one of the events, but bad weather rained out most of the weekend. Over the course of the week we saw loads of balloons all over the city, including some of the unusual shapes like a mug of root beer, a can of Pepsi, a dancing bumblebee, and a ladybug perched on a flower. We also had a few up-close-and-personal sightings, like several landings nearby and also a landing at O's school. One morning I had my camera with me and this was what we saw drifting over E's school:
As we got closer to the weekend, we were all becoming increasingly excited about going to the festival. The excitement was dampened somewhat on Friday when they had a balloon crash and the copilot was killed and the pilot left in critical condition. Despite that, we decided to get up at 5:30am on Saturday and make the trip to Balloon Fiesta Park to watch the mass ascension. After sitting in traffic for a good 30 minutes, we learned that the launch was cancelled due to wind, so we headed back home with the idea of returning in the evening to watch the balloon glow. Mother Nature had other plans.

The meeting of the outer edge of Hurricane Norbert and a Pacific cold front directly over New Mexico resulted in tumultuous weather on Saturday. Winds and downpours and lightning and thunder whipped the area all afternoon, punctuated by an intense hail storm that sounded like, well, like an intense hail storm. The pellets of hail were anywhere from a quarter to half an inch in diameter, and pounded our neighborhood for a minute or two. The remaining hail on the ground looked oh-so-briefly like snow.



Needless to say, Saturday evening's festivities were cancelled, as well as Sunday morning's Farewell Ascension. So our first Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque was a bust, with us not attending a single event. Hopefully next year Mother Nature will cut us some slack.

Although, the hail was pretty freakin' awesome.