Storm

There was such a violent storm in Melbourne yesterday that it took everyone by surprise. It lasted about an hour and caused huge flood and wind damage. There were even golfball sized hail stones! I've never seen anything like it. Check out these ridiculous photos (taken from The Age website)

I was at Chadstone shopping centre in the eastern suburbs when the storm struck. The mall has a large complex of plastic atrium roofs. The sounds of the huge hail stones and heavy rain hitting the plastic was about as loud as a plane taking off. Sections of the shopping centre flooded in less than ten minutes. The whole exciting fun thing of a huge storm suddenly looked dangerous. I slipped on the wet marble floor several times. After the fifth time of slipping I thought I had better sit down and wait it out at a cafe.

This photo was taken at Southern Cross train station, where a section of the roof collapsed.

This is at Flemington horse racing track, where races where being held when the storm hit.

There was so much hail of such a large size it settled on the ground for more than an hour. It looked like snow - in mild autumnal March!