Severe storms exploded over the St. Louis Metro area Saturday evening dropping hail bigger than golfballs sending people for shelter and smashing out windows of cars. A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH was in effect for the region as a line of storms fired early afternoon and intensified right before sunset over the northern suburbs of St. Louis. When the biggest storm crossed the river into Illinois, it quickly intensified dropping hailstones bigger than 2-inches that smashed out car windshields.
Video package shot in Fairmont City, IL which is a northeast St. Louis suburb. It lies between I-70 and I-64 in the Illinois side of the river.
Scene 1: NAT shot while attempting to film hail on the ground when a lightning bolt hit a tree within 100 yards, scaring photographer with loud thunder.
Scene 2-6: Shots of vivid lightning strikes from the storm.
Scene 7-8: POV driving shots on hail-covered road during the storm.
Scene 9: Traffic in hailstorm.
Scene 10: Wide shot of numerous vehicles under a gas station roof.
Scene 11: Tight shot of vehicles at gas station.
Scene 12: SUV at the gas station.
Scene 13: Close shot of vehicles at gas station.
Scene 14: Black pickup truck in hailstorm.
Scene 15: Dashcam of gas station as SUV drives passed.
Scene 16: Red pickup truck in hailstorm.
Scene 17-19: Shots of hail falling in a ditch and on the road, covering the roadway.
Scene 20: Vehicle at intersection pulling out of shot during storm.
Scene 21: Hail falling on road.
Scene 22-23: POV shots of hail covered roads toward end of storm.
Scene 24-25: Shots of vehicles as storm ends taking shelter under trees.
Scene 26-30: Shots of vehicles that had back windows destroyed by the hail.
Scene 31-32: Shots of hail just over 2-inches big with ruler, golfball, and lime.
Scene 33-34: Shots of large hailstones in hand.
Scene 35: Shot of a 2 inch hailstone next to an SD card.
Scene 36-37: Shots of storm approaching at sunset (before hail)
Scene 38: Shot of storm from highway.