2011 Melbourne Hail Storm

Seasons in Australia is the complete opposite of most other parts of the world. Where it is snowing in Europe, we are experiencing sweltering heatwaves here in Australia. Elsewhere, where people may be all rugged up in their winter wear making snow angels, most of us here are dressed in our lightest summer wear, slathering on the SPF and feeling the sand between our toes at the beach.

On Christmas Day morning, we slept in and I woke up to a beautiful sunny day. I love summer so I don't complain when its a hot 32 degree day. In fact I love it. Christmas dinner was to be at a cousin's who lives just a short distance away.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, I noticed the skies had suddenly turned a dark grey. And so I stepped out to take closer look. It was like a scene out of Charmed. What I wasn't expecting to see were dark swirling clouds, tumbling over themselves as they rolled above me in the sky. WTH!? Barely half an hour ago it was a sunny hot 32 degree heat.

 We were already running late for dinner (isn't it strange how the ones who lives the closest are very often the ones who turn up late!), so we packed ourselves into our car and pulled out of the driveway. Just in time to avoid a light feathery drizzle on ourselves.

But what was to be just a short 10 minute drive turned into an experience of a lifetime.

That light drizzle turned into a frenzied thunderstorm. The kind that had our windscreen wipers on our at its maximum speed and still we couldn't see ahead of us. We felt the car being pushed by the wine. We later learned it was 100km/h winds.

Then it hailed. Which isn't a first in Melbourne, but it hailed so hard ,we had to pull over onto the side of the road. And we waited for it to pass.

But it didn't! In fact, it hailed even harder. It was pretty scary in fact. And the noise that it made! We were fully expecting the windscreen to shatter right in front of us. I was worried. So I plucked some Christmas pressies from our backseat and I was shielding our faces with them.. just in case. Kayden was terrified.Sitting all alone in the backseat, his eyes blinked at the sound of every loud clatter the hail stones were making. His shoulders were up under his ears and he was shell shocked. At first he was saying "rain!". But soon he was going "Oh NO! Oh no!" with a very worried expression on his face.

We must have only stopped for about 5 minutes. But with the ferocity of the hail outside, we felt like we were trapped in a thin metal box with 6 glass windows which were about to shatter anytime. We knew it was a possibility the car was going to be a write off. But we are just thankful we weren't cut by shattered windows!

When the calm came, we turned around to check on the house. We were just only 2 minutes away, but I think it took a good 15 minutes because huge branches laid across the roads and several points were flooded and we had to take a detour to get back home.

By the time we stepped out of our car back home most of the hail have already melted. (It was 32 degrees outside just before after all). And these were some of the things we saw as we drove back home.

It was an incredible sight. We received hail some the size of golf balls. I have a friend who showed me a photo of their lawn, completely covered in a blanket of white hailstones. My plants in our garden beds are badly shredded as you can see. Also in my backyard, garden pots have been blown meters away, but miraculously none broken. We walked around the house inspecting it, but heaved a sigh of relief that we had no damage.

Our car is a different story though. Our brave black warrior that protected us from the hail now has battle scars. Dents on every single panel of the car. We counted over a hundred on the bonnet alone.

I don't like the snow, and have never wished for a white Christmas! But I suppose quite a few other people must have said that out loud because we sure had a white Christmas 2011! What an experience!