Melbourne's wild weather.

Ken and I had some shopping to do in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs today. He took advantage of it being Saturday, and slept in until nearly midday. Being the WOTH (woman of the house), I of course was up much earlier and getting things done. Two loads of washing were done and on the line by the time he was up and about. When we finally left the house, the sky had turned from sunshiny blue to a cloudy grey. Over at Boronia an hour later, we emerged from the Hobby Shop (where Ken got bits to repair his broken helicopter) to find huge black clouds and rain. Within minutes of driving off, Ken had to pull over into a parking area - the rain and hail was so severe we could not see where we were going. It sounded and felt like the car was being pounded by twenty golf balls, and we were actually quite scared! Nobody was going anywhere on the roads, traffic lights were flashing as well as the lightning and the roads were awash. Upon inspecting his car the minute we got home, Ken found a dent in the bonnet which was obviously caused by a huge hailstone.

I held out no hope for my washing which had been half dry when we left home; in fact I doubted that it would still be on the line - had vision of my undies strewn over half a dozen back yards! But Somebody Up There must love me. Would you believe, as we came through Eltham, the roads were dry!! It was just starting to rain as we got home, so I rushed out to the back yard and rescued all the washing just in time. We must have been on the fringes of the storm that hit Melbourne because our rain gauge has measured only 10 mls of rain, while elsewhere they had up to 26 mls. You can read more about our weather, and see some interesting photos here.