The storm was evident
to the SW of Stanthorpe, as early as 6pm, from the window of our room over
the Hotel on Main Street.
The lightning that
preceded was amazing, forking upon multiple fork - vivid blue and white,
sometimes a lemon yellow, and constantly spidered across the underside
of the anvil as the storm approached. It was a transfixing sight
as it continued to crawl across the rooftops.
The clouds looked
like inky velvet against the sky. The mammatus long and ovulated
and appeared to glow from the force of energy within.
But yes, once venturing
outside, the pickup in surface winds was evident as your face was whipped
by your hair; though no structural damage was evident anywhere, either
prior to or after the event at all.
Admittedly I incorrectly
concluded this storm would pass to the better south of town, and my girlfriend
and I popped across the back of the Hotel to the Civic Center, for the
evenings festivities.
The hail struck at
7:20pm - JUST, wouldn't you know it, as First Tastings was being called!
- the onslaught began
as abruptly as it ceased. It fell in four waves, averaging nearly
2mins each, easing off to just about nothing (at which point my heart would
start to beat again and I'd begin to breathe easy), then suddenly the crescendo
would build again, with a noticeable increase in stone size and quantity. The Hail lay a good 6inches deep by the time it had finished dumping it's
load - some trees were stripped bare of their foliage. There
was relatively little rain mixed, although torrential downpours followed
later. Each CG was kept close company by deafening thunderclaps.
After the Wine Festival
wound up at 11:00, I along with several others, (our courage steeled by
hours of inbibement of many quality elixirs, I ought to add) tippy-toed
across torrents of rain rimming each side of the streets, over into the
carpark, to inspect the damage - which under the glare of street light
reflected in raindrops, didn't appear 'quite' so bad through a blurred
glance. But everywhere the roads were amply strewn with leaves; some
guttering was clogged and overflowed.
The township of Stanthorpe
then actually blacked out at 12:10am, and was without power till 1:15am
- much to the chagrin of the high spirited Commercial Hotel patrons.
So the beer got a little warmer, but hey, it was business as usual!! The
party continued by candlelight and the strum of a band member's acoustic
guitar, accentuated by the odd rolls of thunder and steady beats of the
downpour; until power plunged it back into full swing. (unfortunately
for those patrons who had since retired and gone to bed, to find theirs
was neatly located directly over the bar.)
But it just wouldn't
be Australian to let a severe storm get in the way of a good time!!..
that's how it goes out here.
In the glare of the
morning sun however, it was painfully obvious my car, my beautiful,
sporty and sleek liddle car, (and dozens of others), was in a very bad
way indeed.
Indentations by the
score, spotted every panel - they vary in size and depth, and the odd few
belie stones of a larger means than golf ball size got up close and personal
wif my baby! Even the plastic window strips look like giant ants
have gone along chomping off bites in neat lines, along their lengths.
At least the windows were all intact and I could drive back to Brisbane
easily enough.
It's kinda cool driving
around in a car that now matches my 'rep' as a storm chaser, but you hafta
feel for those that have lost life endeavors, or will abandon them, in
the wake of this brutal storm.
It was a real doozy!!
