Summer storm leaves a wintry scene in Canberra by Steph Ball
Severe thunderstorms have been affecting parts of southeast Australia over the last few days bringing flash floods and with damaging hail and wind. One particular violent hailstorm left a strange wintry scene in parts of Canberra’s central business district on Wednesday, leaving some parts under a metre-deep layer of ice.
With Australia just coming to the end of its summer, the blanket of hail made for a strange sight with residents comparing it to the snow-bound cities currently in the US. The ice caused problems on major roads with tractors having to be sent out to clear them.
Although summer storms are not unusual in this part of Australia, the Australian bureau of Meteorology said that Canberra had already set a new record for the most thunderstorms recorded in a single month. Up to Wednesday’s storm it had already reported 14 so far in February. One resident said he had never seen hail accumulating this high before.
The State Emergency Service ( SES ), struggled to respond to the numerous calls for help from those experiencing flood and hail damage. In one storm overnight into Wednesday, 70mm of rain was reported in just one hour. This degree of heavy rain falling in a short space of time led to flash flooding in several areas.
Sydney also experienced severe storms on Wednesday, causing flash floods, whilst some people were left injured by lightning strikes.
Parts of New South Wales remain under the threat of further severe thunderstorms today, with large hail and damaging winds and flash floods. This may hamper some of the clean up from yesterdays’ storms, which is expected to continue through into the weekend.
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