I was mid-way through teaching Art with the Infants class yesterday afternoon when the sky blackened. With very little warning, hail started to fall, loudly pinging on the tin roof. We rushed to the windows to get a better look, and as the noise became deafening, I decided to let the kids go outside and experience the hail properly! The rest of the school was already out, running up and down the verandahs, squealing and shouting in pure delight. We stood under the cover of the school verandahs as the hail bucketed down. It was so loud that I couldn't even hear myself shouting!
It kept hailing for what felt like ages, but was probably only 15 minutes. By the time it was finished, everything was white and looked like snow had fallen.
Having spent the last 14 years in the Southern Highlands, we've seen quite a few hailstorms, but this is very uncommon for Wellington. For most of the kids here, it was a new and very fun experience! As the bell went for the end of the day, the high school kids took great delight in skidding along the ice and scooping up hand-fulls of ice to throw at each other. Driving home over an hour later, there were mounds of ice piled up under gutters and the remains of shredded trees lay scattered all over the ground. No ice at home though, so I'm guessing the hail storm was fairly localised.
Since moving to Wellington we have have so much rain. Burrendong Dam, which was sitting at just under 10% full in April is now over 90%, and still rising. Everything is so wet. The ground is soaked and can't take any more water, so it is all becoming run-off. I'm hoping the hail and drenching rain has done some damage to the locust eggs, which are due to hatch any day now.
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