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Parts Of Britain Battered By Hailstones The Size Of Golf Balls

Parts Of Britain Battered By Hailstones The Size Of Golf Balls

Not just that, they're spiky too!

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

So, as you're no doubt aware by now, the heatwave that has been gripping the whole country for a good few weeks now has finally broken.

Yesterday saw huge thunderstorms and torrential rain batter much of the east of the country, as well as a few other places, but it looks as if some of the people who saw the rain weren't quite getting the relief and respite that they might have expected.

Quite the opposite, in fact. Some of them got battered by huge spiky hailstones the size of golf balls. That's not exactly what you would expect to happen in somewhere like Yorkshire, but hey, it's a strange world that we live in.

Twitter / Jane Duke

Some people managed to get photos of the huge hail before it melted in the heat - which was still pretty oppressive yesterday, but has died off a bit now.

The weirdest thing about the whole thing is that the hailstones seem to be spiky and jagged, like little icy maces that are being thrown down from the heavens by malevolent critters in some sort of bizarre real-life platform game.

Twitter / Jonathan Cowap

Anyway, looking at them, you wouldn't want to get struck upside the head with one of these things. It looks a little bit like something from a disaster movie.

Hail is formed by the updrafts from thunderstorms carrying water up to the point in the atmosphere where it freezes.

Once it has frozen - obviously - it's too heavy to stay up there, so it falls to earth. Or, at least, it falls on some poor Yorkshireman's head.

One such person called Ross told the Mirror: "It was jaw dropping.

"I was walking to the car when it started and had one hailstone ping off the top of my head.

He continued: "It stung like hell. I have never seen anything like it in the UK before, the size of them ranged from garden peas up to golf balls.

"The larger ones had even lost their round shape and become jagged and spikey.

"Overall, the deluge lasted for 90 minutes, coming in three spells.

"Less than 20 minutes after it had stopped though, there was sunshine, and the ice was all gone."

PA

The giant hailstorms were accompanied by some pretty impressive electrical storms. The east of England was particularly badly hit by huge thunderstorms and torrential rain.

The Met Office had issued an amber warning for downpours and warned of potential flooding, lightning strikes and high winds.

In the end, it caused a whole load of travel disruption across the country, but not as bad as it could have been, certainly.

There's not too much to worry about though, the forecast suggests that the weather will pick up again towards the end of next week. Enjoy the cooler air while we've got it.

Featured Image Credit: Twitter / Jane Duke

Topics: Weather, UK News, Weird

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