Sun, 11th Nov, 2018 Pastoral Station, 60km north of Sandstone, WA (hail storm)

7am 22 degrees, dark clouds and still rumbling thunder about.

Joy texted – Paynes Find had 50ml and hail so they wanted to know how we were. I checked the rain gauge and we had 10ml overnight.

Cool breeze. Van closed up still.

9.30am rain started again – quite a heavy downpour. Steve had just headed down to the house bore on the 4 wheeler so came back drenched.

Joy sent a video a friend had sent her of Cue streets covered in water, right up to the shop fronts.

11am checked the rain gauge again – 4 ml. I have opened up the van windows.

More black clouds heading our way and lots of thunder.

Midday. The thunder is constantly rumbling.

Some more rain with still the rumbling thunder.

Steve working in the shed while I worked on my blog. I heard a roar of wind coming from the north then the rain came down heavily. Managed to get the windows closed then realised there was another noise. Big thumps on the roof then I looked outside and saw little balls of hail. I went outside to take a photo when the wind changed direction and blew straight into the van. I was flat out trying to get the outer door closed as the rain and hail pelted in.

Steve found a big raincoat in the shed and came back to check the van and awning was ok. The storm lasted 15 minutes with water flowing down from the roof of the house and down the track which now looked like a river.

I found some hail just after the storm passed over.

Made a nice warm lunch as it was only 23 degrees in the van and the wind is cold.

Checked the rain gauge again and we had 10ml. Checked the vegie gardens etc – the bigger tomato bushes had a lean on and a shade frame for the passionfruit had fallen over but otherwise everything was ok.

The sun is out for a bit and the wind has gone but I can still hear the thunder rumbling and there is another dark cloud in the north.

Let Joy and Lance know who much rain we have had and about the hail as they are heading back home and have 60km of dirt to cover from Sandstone.

The next storm went away so we had a nice afternoon. Joy and Lance arrived at 5pm and said they had been through a few good storms and there was a lot of water on the road.

The sky is clearing as we chatted over drinks. Lovely cool evening.