Not a good day in Carlsbad, NM

Posted on May 30, 2021 By Sharon Ginger

So, as you can see, it was not a good day in Carlsbad, NM. We arrived yesterday afternoon to the KOA which is about 15 miles outside of town. The skies were blue and the temp was in the 90s. We follow the weather forecasts for all the places we visit and it said there was a 50% chance of thunder storms in the late afternoon. The weather remained clear all day until about 7 pm, that was when a dark bank of clouds appeared on the distant horizon.

About that time we took the 15 mile drive into town for dinner. We had a really nice dinner at Brix restaurant on their patio with live music, all was well. About 8:30 pm we stopped at Lowe’s to pick up some shelving materials to install in the closets. While we were in Lowe’s we could hear thunder, then rain, and then the pounding of what sounded like gravel being poured on the roof. I rushed to the front door to see that it was pouring rain with huge hail, lightning and thunder. I found Joel and we left everything in our cart and made a run for it to the truck. Within those few short minutes we were soaked to the bone wet. I have never seen rain/hail come down so fast and furious. Lightening was continuously flashing across the sky and the air had a burned sulfur smell. We started back to the trailer since we left the dogs there while we went to eat. All I could think of was how scared they must be. The rain and hail was so loud and heavy we could barely see the road or even hear each other talk.

It seemed like it took forever to drive those 15 miles, we had to go slow since the street was flooded and there was almost no visibility. Once we made it back, the worst of it had passed. It was pitch black out, we retrieved a flashlight to assess if there was any damage to the Airstream. Unfortunately, we could see the front and back of the roof was heavily pitted with dents. The dogs were fine and happy to see us. I don’t even know what to think is next for us.

Turn up the volume to hear the hail pounding our truck

Earlier that evening when all was fine and we were celebrating a birthday-eve dinner….