Just when I thought Perth is an uninteresting place, last week the heavens opened up and dumped its load ending what seems to be a 6 months drought.
Usually when its forecast-ed to rain here, it’s pretty much a non-event with only a light drizzle at night that hardly gets noticed. But last Monday, it was different. Halfway through my afternoon meeting, the electricity went out and it started raining cats and dogs.
The rain came down with such fury that my street was flooded within 10 minutes.
Trees were falling in Kings park around cars,
This was followed by hail, and unlike any hail I’d experienced, these suckers were big, some of them close to 60mm in diameter.
Do not let the photos fool you. The sky was clear only for a brief moment after the first arsenal from the heavens. The heavier storms were just rolling in as I was driving home.
Extremely heavy rain soon followed and there were water everywhere. I could see people trapped in the rising water.. like this poor cyclist in Leederville.
Visibility on the freeway was very bad and there were traffic jam everywhere,
There were a few occasion when the hail came down with the heavy rain, and being stuck in traffic means that there’s no where to run. The sound of the car being pelted with big tennis ball-sized hail was indeed a new experience for me. There were cars around me with their screens being smashed in..
Fair to say, I tried a different route through the city, to avoid having the same fate as the car above.
Wellington street was flooded, and so was Adelaide Tce, the main street that passes through the city.
It was a long and anxious drive home, anxious because I am curious what damage my car sustained from the hail. However, thank god I made it home safely. Lots of cars were stalled on the way home, but I was lucky.
I was stuck outside my house because there were no electricity for my garage door to work, so i took a photo of a rainbow.
The electricity didn’t come back until a day later, and the heavy weather left Perth in a mess.
The media reported that this 4 hour storm caused more than 108 million worth of damage.
This is not hard to believe because a lot of cars and building were damaged, and the electricity was out for up to a week in some places.
Photos of hail damage from car yards were circulating around
I feel for the owner of this Porsche, all the panels had dimples from the hail.
I used to think they were exaggerating when they say Australia is a land of extreme, now I actually think its true.
Oh yeah, my car had a few dimples too.. but its a cheap car 
Tags: Car, Exploring Perth, Perth, Thoughts
