Worst Storm In 100 Years Hits Melbourne

[swingtan]

Those in based in Australia and possibly even New Zealand will have heard about Melbourne getting hit with the most devastating storm in 100 years. For those in the rest of the world, you may not have heard, or only heard snippets of information. The worst area hit on Saturday 6th March was Lysterfield and you guessed it, that's where I live.

Here's a few images and a couple of videos of what it was like......
Click on the picture to go to the whole set.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2720/4411365107_ecae6fe146.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/swingtan/sets/72157623569202154/)

[Tordne]

I definitely heard about it, but damn those are massive hail stones!

[swingtan]

Yep, if the snakes, spiders, sharks or crocodiles don't kill you in Aus, the weather will.....

I just uploaded another video of the hail hitting the cars. It's pretty nasty stuff.

[WeathermanShawn]

Those are some very unique Hailstorm pictures. Here in the USA, the state I live in (Colorado) is one of the more hail-prone area in the country.

But, those are some very big hail-stones. If you were to have measured total circumference..how big were some of the bigger ones (metric and imperial )?

You should upload the video or or pictures to either CNN.com or the Weather Channel.com in the USA. I think they would be interested.

Great pictures!

[swingtan]

Those were the biggest I found, but they had melted a little by the time I ventured outside. 100mm ( 4" ) would have been the biggest ones and I have saved them in a plastic bag in the freezer.

[WeathermanShawn]

Wow, that is a very respectable size.

Its interesting to view the 'smaller' hailstones vs the larger ones. You can tell the bigger ones had to have fallen from the coldest and highest portion of the cumulonimbus cloud. All the rime formation and edges tell a lot.

As you said the terminal velocity of these hailstones can be tremendous. Also interesting is the amount of 'updraft' speed necessary to maintain a hailstone that size before it falls. It becomes almost equal to the terminal velocity when it falls.

I would really think at least the Weather Channel in the US would be interested if you sent them pictures and or a video. Out of curiosity, were there any tornadoes..and how is the radar coverage in your area? Ignorance on my part, but is it comparable to the U.S. Doppler coverage?

In any case, I am impressed. I have done some storm-chasing in my day, and those are impressive hailstones! Glad you were not hurt..:)

[Tre-Cool]

Panel beaters are going to go take off in melbourne.

[joecar]

Wow, even the small ones in your pic are large... :shock:

[swingtan]

We had no official "tornadoes", we rarely see anything like that in Australia. There were reports that a town in QLD ( way up North from Melbourne ) actually got fish falling! So they would have had some sort of mini tornadoe to such them up from a river or hatchery.

We have full doppler radar coverage, Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia. But I never actually looked at that, partially because I didn't think there would be hail that size but mainly because we were getting ready to leave for a wedding.

[joecar]

In 1966 (IIRC... I was 4 yo) Sydney got a hailstorm that "snowed-in" the inner suburbs... the stones were only marble sized... and laid about 1 foot deep.

[joecar]

I hope your car was under cover and safe...

[5.7ute]

We had hail pass 5km North of town last year that stripped a swathe 80km long and a couple of km wide. Closest we have had to a white Christmas ever.

[swingtan]

I hope your car was under cover and safe...

Click on the image in the first post, it goes to my Flickr set that shows the cars......


My car has at least 96 dents in it :bawl:

[5.7ute]

Click on the image in the first post, it goes to my Flickr set that shows the cars......


My car has at least 96 dents in it :bawl:

Sorry to hear your car got damaged. I expect there will be a huge hit to the insurance companies after this.

[swingtan]

Massive...... While we got away with just car damage and a small amount on the house, many others had their roof seriously damaged. Lots of ceilings collapsed, sky lights destroyed etc. Ferntree Gully Nissan nearly got wiped out, all their cars were damaged. I haven't heard about FTG Holden, but they are next door.

[joecar]

Sad to see... ouch...:bawl:

[gmh308]

In 1966 (IIRC... I was 4 yo) Sydney got a hailstorm that "snowed-in" the inner suburbs... the stones were only marble sized... and laid about 1 foot deep.

It actually did this in Sydney only 5 or 6 years ago. Maybe I can find the pics. It went white. Just like 'The Day After" I think it was (but not quite as bad), the air took an an alpine chill in the blink of an eye. Not in winter.

Around that time we also had a mini tornado right in Sydney's inner west. Very localised. Next door neighbours had their sliding front windows ripped out of the tracks blown in onto their bed an internal door with the lock ripped out of it and a number or tiles and ridge caps learnt how to fly. Many large local trees were just ripped in half and fibro garages were totalled.

[Chevy366]

Funny was reading this post and we got some hail as I was reading it (nothing like in the picture) , weatherman said the storms would be East of us today , guess they missed that one , as usual . :-)
Had a truck that got beat up pretty bad a few years ago , can sympathize with you .

[GMPX]

I was away in the US when this storm hit, I always miss out on the 'fun' , looking around our place, looks like it missed us, no obvious damage.

[vxchev8]

I was at in-laws in Wantirna South when the storm hit. Rushed out and put rubber foam boards (boggy boards) on the mother-in-laws car roof, felt guilty as all our good furniture was in their garage while we are building. No damage to missus car or in-law's. Although a few broken tiles on the roof. Freaky day.

Sorry to hear about your trouble's swingtan