I'm in Perth, Australia and the weather here is almost always nice. But on Monday afternoon I was in the middle of a hail storm more severe than anything I've ever seen. Hail stones about 40mm to 80mm across were smashing down for about 5 minutes breaking windows, roofs and wrecking cars - including mine. Even clay roof tiles were broken on some homes.
I know Britain gets regularly pelted with wild storms but I never thought I'd see it here. At least now I know how you feel.
My car is/was a Subaru Impreza and it has hundreds of dents all over the upper facing metalwork. However, the plastic bumpers are unmarked. They took the punishment and simply bounced back. This is not really surprising but it puts a new slant on the concern about modern cars being too 'plasticy' and not made like they used to be. For this type of impact, plastic is ideal.
Also, rear windscreens were far more likely to break than front ones. I guess front windscreens are deliberately made tougher. The carpark had smashed glass and indicator light covers everywhere. Even some wing mirrors were taken clean off!
And amazingly, there have been no serious injuries reported so far. Everyone outside must have run for cover.
Nature's Fury - Hail Stones Ate my Car!
Nature's Fury - Hail Stones Ate my Car!
Phwooorr...look at her....CRASH
Re: Nature's Fury - Hail Stones Ate my Car!
There was one where I live near London last summer which lasted about 20 minutes but only affected an are of roughly 2 square miles.
It started out ok and everyone was looking around at how freakish it was at which point the hail was sized at about half a golf ball. What people weren't watching was the rain than came with it (I guess a consequence of it being summer and so quite warm) and the hail compacted into like a thick sheet of snow blocking the routes than rain would normally escape to go down drains etc and so when the rain water flowed it created a torrent that nearly flooded several houses.
Afterwards, there wasn't any real damage besides all the summer flowers and folliage was missing from plants and it was as if nothing was left but the stems and stalks.
My house backs on to a hill which made things worse as the rain and hail all came down against by back fense and by garden was about a foot deep in water If I hadn't have noticed it getting deeper (I was off work on vacation) it might have flooded the house but instead I managed to open my side fence gate through which the wated and ice flowed out and met with that of my neighbours to create a river than then flowed harmlessly down the road and into the thankfully clear drains.
Despite the summer sun and humidity the hail and rain seemed to freeze solid into banks of ice all over the neighbourhood. The mass pressing up against my fence must have been 4 feet high and so I had to dig it away. In all it took probably near 2 weeks to melt!
It started out ok and everyone was looking around at how freakish it was at which point the hail was sized at about half a golf ball. What people weren't watching was the rain than came with it (I guess a consequence of it being summer and so quite warm) and the hail compacted into like a thick sheet of snow blocking the routes than rain would normally escape to go down drains etc and so when the rain water flowed it created a torrent that nearly flooded several houses.
Afterwards, there wasn't any real damage besides all the summer flowers and folliage was missing from plants and it was as if nothing was left but the stems and stalks.
My house backs on to a hill which made things worse as the rain and hail all came down against by back fense and by garden was about a foot deep in water If I hadn't have noticed it getting deeper (I was off work on vacation) it might have flooded the house but instead I managed to open my side fence gate through which the wated and ice flowed out and met with that of my neighbours to create a river than then flowed harmlessly down the road and into the thankfully clear drains.
Despite the summer sun and humidity the hail and rain seemed to freeze solid into banks of ice all over the neighbourhood. The mass pressing up against my fence must have been 4 feet high and so I had to dig it away. In all it took probably near 2 weeks to melt!
Re: Nature's Fury - Hail Stones Ate my Car!
Yeah that was a fun one. I was out in West Perth right under the worst of the rain ... not one single hailstone. My Brother in Law was about 5 k's away and his people mover got a thorough pasting 
Re: Nature's Fury - Hail Stones Ate my Car!
Exactly. This hail seemed to fall in seams where quite small areas were hammered while only a few hundred metres away, the damage was minimal.
I was working at the QEII Medical Centre at the time and that place had almost every window smashed in some buildings.
I was working at the QEII Medical Centre at the time and that place had almost every window smashed in some buildings.
Phwooorr...look at her....CRASH