Australia’s summer of obscenely wild weather has continued in Canberra this afternoon, with the nation’s capital getting battered pillar to post by a wild afternoon hail storm that dropped golf ball-sized stones across the city, even managing to give Parliament House a thorough battering.
[jwplayer aO5Ai5ox]
A supercell thunderstorm, rated as “very dangerous” by the Bureau of Meteorology, rolled through the Canberra metro region at around 1pm this afternoon, heaving hail to the ground and leaving the place looking more like a blizzard had just rolled through town.
Footage and images from the ground paints a truly wild picture of the scenes that unfolded, with hail large and powerful enough to punch through skylights and, in some cases, roofing iron.
https://twitter.com/TimYowie/status/1219082751464239105
https://twitter.com/andrewc48512109/status/1219077766231941120
I’m sitting at home writing about tipping points in climate change and how our economic models don’t fully capture the risk of extreme changes in weather when a hail storm like I have never seen before hits Canberra … Balls of ice larger than golf balls. pic.twitter.com/CY2zX3Rj91
— Anthea Roberts (@AntheaERoberts) January 20, 2020
Massive hail storm in Canberra. A couple of very sore toes from getting hit by these lethal sized rocks. @abcnews pic.twitter.com/XO2ss33mxA
— jc (@JcMasterspin) January 20, 2020
https://twitter.com/tegangeorge/status/1219075742706700289
Hail stones currently pouring over #Canberra. #ACT pic.twitter.com/Fj38wJyoj8
— Makoi Popioco (@makoipopioco) January 20, 2020
https://twitter.com/PeteSwanton/status/1219082014613049344
Enormous hailstorm has just passed through Canberra. A lot of vehicle hail damage #CBR pic.twitter.com/c0z1Z8wtS1
— Kathryn Hopps, PhD. (@drkhopps) January 20, 2020
At Parliament House, journos and staffers locked inside captured a stack of angles on the frankly unreal scenes, with the massive stone bashing the living christ out of the building’s famed and immaculately maintained gardens.
Hail destroying the trees at Parliament House.. poor gardeners pic.twitter.com/bHEES1yhHy
— Tamsin Rose (@tamsinroses) January 20, 2020
Remarkable scenes here at Parliament House as a storm hits Canberra… this much hail in about 5 minutes pic.twitter.com/iRjBjiqWBv
— Caitlin Taylor (@caitotaylor) January 20, 2020
Holy calamity. I am finally witnessing the mythical golf ball sized hail pounding down on Parliament House. IT IS WILD pic.twitter.com/oXv7KAJ5yQ
— Sarah Martin (@msmarto) January 20, 2020
Golfball hail at the Parliament House cafeteria.@abccanberra @abcnews pic.twitter.com/DIojddUFFI
— Anna Foley (@Anna_Foley_) January 20, 2020
This is the hail at Parliament House. Unreal. @canberratimes pic.twitter.com/eEWfsY7pPZ
— Sally Whyte (@sallywhyte) January 20, 2020
https://twitter.com/donattroppo/status/1219077764805881856
Large hail piled up on the Parliament House cafeteria balcony in #Canberra. Hard to think of a weirder backdrop to fire recovery meetings. pic.twitter.com/ZvWUpAKBiM
— Anna Foley (@Anna_Foley_) January 20, 2020
Two people have reportedly been treated for minor injuries related to the storm, while scores of buildings and cars are said to have been damaged by the hail stones.
Most cars parked at @nlagovau are stuffed pic.twitter.com/KH45m2BRcC
— Hilary YES!! (@hil_clix_pix) January 20, 2020
Today’s storm follows one from a similar one that battered Melbourne’s eastern suburbs yesterday, and comes ahead of more predicted severe storm activity across much of the eastern seaboard.
The storms in Canberra come almost immediately straight after the city endured weeks of horrendous air quality due to lingering bushfire smoke from the on-going catastrophe unfolding across much of the country.
