Hail, Hail!

Okay, I take back what I said yesterday about the winter in Melbourne. After babbling about snow never making an appearance in Melbourne, it actually SNOWED in some parts of Melbourne this morning! And apparently, today was the coldest in Melbourne in nine years!

No, I personally didn't experience any snow in my area but I did have another kind of icy encounter - hail. What really boggled the mind was the speed at which it took place.

The weatherman did say something about hail early today but as I was leaving the house at around 3pm to pick Joshua up from school, I took a good look at the sky. Bright and sunny. It didn't look like it was going to rain at all. Then, as I arrived at Joshua's school about 8 minutes later, I noticed the sky had turned very dark. Strange. Then it started to drizzle as Joanne and I walked towards the school compound. Then it got really, really windy. We nearly lost our umbrella.

As we took shelter under the roofed verandah, the wind started to howl. Then some really scratchy sound surrounded us. Some of the mums waiting there squealed and started to get excited about something. I looked up and saw, for the very first time in my life, tiny hailstones! And they just dropped from the sky!

They were like little pebbles and started melting almost the minute they hit the ground. Of course, the temperature dipped at that point. I felt as if I was sitting in a freezer. Both Joanne watched the hailstones in awe! Apparently, the locals were in awe too. I guess hail isn't all that common.

Unbelievable. The weather changed so drastically in less than half an hour. I'd never experienced anything like that. It's true when they say Melbourne is a city with four seasons in a day!