Hail stones big as tennis balls hit Melbourne, Victoria & New South Wales for third day in a row

[depakid]

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EMERGENCY services were forced to evacuate 120 people from a town in southern NSW, and the army was called in to help protect properties at nearby Wagga Wagga, as record rains wreaked havoc across the region. The rising torrent in Kyeamba Creek forced the inhabitants of Ladysmith from their homes last night and 185 personnel from the Kapookao army base used sandbags to protect homes in Wagga Wagga from flash flooding.

The town received 98 millimetres of rain in the 12 hours to 9pm last night. With the rain still falling, the record for the most rain in 24 hours - 104.1 millimetres - was set to be broken. About 30 people in rural properties between Ladysmith and Book Book have been isolated.

South of Narrandera, police and volunteers rescued the occupants of four vehicles trapped by floodwaters washing over the Newell Highway. ''They were driving down the road and found themselves in trouble,'' an SES spokesman said. ''When they tried to back out they got stuck.'' Last night the Newell, Hume, Cobb and Sturt highways were all closed, and rail services between Junee and Wagga Wagga were effected.

As of 10pm, the SES had received 120 calls for everything from broken roof tiles to flooding. ''This is intense rainfall for that part of the world,'' said the senior forecaster at the NSW Bureau of Meteorology, Neale Fraser. ''The falls in Wagga in the past 12 hours are more than double the average rainfall for March.''

Victoria was also struck by a weekend of severe thunderstorms. On Saturday, Melbourne received more rain than it would usually see in a month.

Hailstones as big as tennis balls were reported in Ferntree Gully, in Melbourne's south.

In south-eastern Queensland, flood warnings were still in place for more than 16 rivers and several towns were still cut off by floodwaters.

More: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/water-issues/heavy-rain-and-hailstorms-wreak-havoc-across-southern-nsw-20100307-pqlr.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Holey Moley!!!!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. bloody hell, mate, I've driven thru those places, and

Blimey, what on earth is a baseball?

This is really sad. there are some really fine singers and drinkers and mates, not to mention the Sheilas, in those parts.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. baseballs are about the size of a cricket ball

They're used in America's "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball">National Pastime."

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. passed thyme?

and what of the National's american pass tyme?

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. No, passed time

i.e. In a now passed time, it was our "National Pastime."

[depakid]

8. Here's your cricket ball

Harder and heavier than a baseball. Baseballs leave welts, cricket balls break bones.

[OKIsItJustMe]

9. Remember, cricket balls don't break bones

People break other people's bones using cricket balls (and bats.)

(Handy picture, that!)

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. But that's not unusual. Right?

This means "Global Warming" is a scam. (Right?)

Damn! This isn't on my list of talking points.

[depakid]

5. The severe weather meteorologist put it this way:

The super-cell thunderstorm that crossed Melbourne on Saturday severely damaged scores of houses and cars, and huge hail destroyed the roofs of several homes.

Severe weather meteorologist Kevin Parkyn said he would probably have to go back to early last century to find another Melbourne storm that packed 10-centimetre hailstones.

''The 6th of March 2010 will go down in Melbourne's weather history,'' Mr Parkyn said yesterday after briefing Premier John Brumby. ''Lemon-size hail stones in Melbourne? Very rare,'' he said. ''And we're talking large lemons - we're not talking your little green ones.''

Mr Parkyn described Saturday's storm in layman's terms: it was ''an organised beast of a storm'' that lasted several hours and created ''mayhem and destruction'' wherever it went.

Mr Brumby reported yesterday that 15 families - 11 in Melbourne and four in the east of the state - had had to be relocated from their damaged homes, and 100,000 houses had lost power on Saturday.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/an-organised-beast-of-a-storm-belts-city-20100307-pqnw.html?autostart=1

[madokie]

10. A couple maybe three years ago we had a hail storm here

that were giving up 2 inch in diameter hail stones. The hood and the top of the cab on our '98 f150 was beat up pretty bad, so bad that I couldn't look at it but after its setting in the sun a few days all but one of them came back out. I can still see the cracks the dents made in the paint but the metal came back to its original shape. Mind you that the hood and the top of the cab are shaped like inverted shallow bowls and the truck is black so I guess the heat from the sun expanded the metal some, enough to pop the dents back out. Our carport didn't fair so well as the dents still shows. The truck wasn't under the carport just in case anyone wonders what the hell madokie is talking about.