For every time someone in Michigan has said, "It's a beautiful day, there is no possible way the weather could turn ugly", The Mitten State has answered, "Hold my Faygo".

Michiganders have experienced every type of nastiness Mother Nature can throw at the mid-west. Severe thunderstorms, tornados, floods, high winds, rolling waters, and road construction. According to Michigan.gov the two biggest weather events we need to worry about deal with precipitation and heat, so hail isn't a huge worry for Michigan.

Hail! To the Vicksburg, Valiant! Hail! Hail!

Hail is not uncommon in Michigan and therefore when it does come we are not taken back. Some Mitten State motorists get a little salty because they don't want their vehicles dented by falling chunks of ice. Those driving 1990 Saturn Ions don't seem to mind.

It was August 14th, 2019, a pleasant day in Vicksburg, Michigan. Summer activities were being held at one of Vicksburg Community Schools complexes when the sky turned dark almost instantly. That's not uncommon in Michigan, nor is it really a reason to be alarmed for most (unless you're on the water). When we see clouds rolling in we treat it like a spectator sport. It's like a slow but wiser bull charging at a young, cocky mandatory. On this day Vicksburg stared down those clouds and said 'Ole'!

Josh Baird was volunteering at an area high school concession stand when the storm rolled in:

...it started to rain and that rain quickly turned into what appeared to be a snowstorm of ice. It looked like popcorn just bouncing off the ground.

Of course, what he was witnessing was a hail storm. What made this system so impressive was the volume of hail it produced. Hail piles were as deep as 18 inches in Vicksburg that day.

Steam rising from the piles of hail, kids wearing shorts were able to jump into 'snow' in the middle of a Michigan August. Parents relaxed and let the kids enjoy themselves. Eventually, when it was nearly melted away everyone returned to the parking lot to assess the damage to their vehicles...all except one guy playing in the last remaining pile of hail, who drove a 1990 Saturn Ion.

Hail! To the Vicksburg, Michigan! August 2019 Hail Storm

A seemingly beautiful Saturday in mid-August of 2019 turned dark quickly, and the Michigan sky dumped hail upon the city of Vicksburg. It wasn't that it just hailed, it was the massive accumulation that made this Michigan severe weather system so impressive. AccuWeather was on hand to get footage directly after the weather cleared.

Gallery Credit: Scott Clow