Austin’s weather is as unpredictable as the job market is these days. On March 25 the day started out sunny and fine. By 5 p.m., there was a tornado warning. The office were I intern evacuated everyone to their homes, and in less than two minutes the sky was covered in a dark, thick and what seemed like an endless black cloud. I was terrified. Never have I been in a tornado watch, let alone a tornado warning, so I had a weird feeling of the unknown.
The view from highway 2244 at 6:02, March 25, 2009.
I packed my stuff quickly and went out the door, driving calmly on FM-2244 toward West Campus, in the university area. I was tweeting all the while, reporting on what I was seeing. I took this picture of how low the clouds were, and News8Austin picked it up, broadcasting it on air. Of course I didn’t get paid a cent for it, but I felt like I was doing my job as a citizen journalist. I wasn’t even getting the worst of it.
Hail the size of golf balls was falling in the North area of Austin. The windshield on a friend’s car cracked, and like him many other people had casualties as a result of the storm. It was weird that it was so sudden, that in the span of two hours the sky could turn so dark and scary, but the weirdest part of all, is that by 7 p.m., the sun was shining again. Hail? What hail? It was all gone by then.
Watch a video of an Austin resident filming his neighbors as they move their cars to protect them from hail. It’s almost funny.
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