Storms produce hail and heavy rain throughout South Lake Tahoe
By Taylor Flynn / Tahoe Mountain News
While the Carson City area was spared the brunt of significant rainfall on Sunday, other places such as Lake Tahoe and Virginia City were not. Heavy rain and quarter-size hail pummeled parts of South Lake Tahoe and Emerald Bay on Sunday afternoon as the National Weather Service tracked a large thunderstorm in the area issuing a severe weather warning around 4 p.m. and advising boaters to get off the lake.
The "Y" neighborhood in the vicinity of Tata and F Streets was hit especially hard as funnel-like wisps below a dark cloud could be seen over the Twin Peaks area from Echo Summit at about 3:45 p.m.
Tom Wendell was riding his bicycle on Tata Street when a downward blast of cold air followed by sound-deafening hail forced him to take cover. "I just ducked out into the first open garage," said Wendell. "The hail was the size of large marbles and hitting the street so hard that is was bouncing back four feet in the air."
Wendell said the melee lasted about 15 minutes leaving the streets covered in several inches of accumulated snow-like white hail mixed with green pine needles that had been knocked off trees. Afterward "the whole neighborhood smelled like a Christmas tree," he said.
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