| Hail in Alice Springs turned green back yard to white in three minutes |
IT’S OFFICIAL — the weather Gods have gone insane.
On Saturday, a large hailstorm turned Alice Springs from a deep red to a lovely shade of white, and it rained in Darwin.
Sunday was hot and sticky too. And the bureau reckon it’s not going to get much better this week.
Senior Forecaster Angeline Prasad said a burst of dry air would begin pushing through the Top End from Central Australia on Tuesday. But it will fizzle out before it gets here.
“It might be a bit cooler, but it will probably only reduce temperatures by a couple of degrees,” she said.
“Overnight lows probably won’t drop below 20C in Darwin.”
So for now, we have to suck it up.
Ms Prasad said the hailstorm in Alice was uncommon, but not unheard of during summer and spring, but rare in winter.
“It can happen whenever the conditions are right and yesterday conditions were perfect,” she said.
The last time hail was recorded in Alice was November 2012.
She said all rain drops start their descent to earth as hail stones. In the tropics though, they melt before they get there.
But hail reaches the ground when aided by particularly strong down draughts, forcing the hail to the ground quicker, not giving it enough time to melt.
As a result of the lower temperatures and high moisture content of the morning air yesterday, thick fog clung to Mt Gillen through much of the morning before burning off.
Father of three Mark Schild said he had never seen hail in his 12 years in Alice Springs.
He said the back yard of his Ilparpa home went from green to white in “about three minutes”.
“It was deafening — we’ve got a tin roof and the noise was so loud,” he said
“I was trying to put one finger in my ear and the other was trying to record what was going on on my phone.”
He said the ground was cool enough that a large pile of ice on the south side of his house — which sees no sun — was still frozen yesterday afternoon.
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