Tropical, icy-icy!

Yesterday evening we had a hell of a hail storm come through. Right on peak hour - half past five - it hit: thunder, lightning, pelting rain and hail. We'd just made it home, so unplugged anything exlodey, I made hot chocolates on the stove and we snuggles together and watched the storm. At first it was just rain, but then we heard the hail approaching - a great wall of sound! After it was all over we headed down to Milton as I had to pick up a memory stick from the computer store. About two blocks away from our place the world was white! Massive amounts of hail banked up in drifts over a foot deep and leaf trash everyewhere. Totally surreal. Navigated the icy roads to get to the computer store, only to find they'd suffered a loss of roof integrity and were closed for business. They were none too happy about it either!

On my way to work at 6:30 this morning there was still some hail about in areas where it had obviously fallen heavily, which surprised me a little. Hail is usually a summer phenomenon and even after a huge storm it doesn't stick around for long! Anyway, it was a gorgeous day today; warm and sunny, around 23oC, so you can imagine my surprise when I was riding from work to the city at half past three this afternoon and came across this...

Everlasting hail - Jerdanefield Rd, St. Lucia

I nearly fell off my bike! I think someone needs to remind the weather that Brisbane is clearly subtropical and 21hr ice is just not on! Anyway, I didn't fall off and I did make it into the city, so please, ( read on! )