Nick dodges hailstones as a super-cell thunderstorm brings rain, thunder and hail on Melbourne – Saturday 6 March 2010

Sheltering from the hail in Melbourne on Saturday 6 March 2010. Note the gallant people sheltering their partners’ or children’s heads from the hailstones. The man at the far right appears to be using a skateboard as a shield. It should be remembered that the general advice is not to shelter under a tree in a thunderstorm in case the tree is hit by lightning, but in this case it may have been appropriate to take the risk. Picture from Flickr
An intense thunderstorm with hail cut through large parts of Australia’s second largest city Melbourne on the afternoon of Saturday 6 March 2010. There was wide-spread damage as large hailstones broke roof tiles and car windshields. Your blogger watched in awe as white sheets of hailstones kept coming down and blanketing the ground in ice. Fortunately, he only had to cope with one leak and a partial loss of power.
Newspaper reports indicate that insurance companies expect a large bill from Saturday’s storm and from other storms around the state of Victoria on the same weekend. The newspapers also reported that the storm has been classified as a super-cell thunderstorm. This is the most intense kind of storm and ...