Hail

A day of interesting weather. We have got off quite lightly, although the garden seat has blown over for the third time in a month. This time, it's started to break apart, so I think it will be time to dismantle it and take it to the tip.

We were just about to go out shopping this morning when we had a thunderstorm. Several flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder, electricity off for about a minute, followed by hail - some quite big. Had to shout to make ourselves heard in the back porch, as it has a corrugated plastic roof.

We set off for the shops and as we left the village noticed the cars coming down the road on the other side of the valley were moving very slowly. As we went down the hill, so the hail on the road became thicker and thicker and we also drove very slowly. At the house, we had obviously missed the heaviest hail, as it was almost like a covering of snow on the road.

The rest of the day was heavy showers, alternating with bright sunshine. The sun would be shining one minute and then suddenly it would get almost as dark as night, the rain would pour down or there would be a brief rattle of hail against the windows and then it would clear again.

Having thought we had large hailstones, the news showed some about the size of marbles from further East.

Hope you have all managed to avoid flood or wind damage.