Hail!

Yesterday a group of us came out of a team meeting to find everyone gathered around one of the few windows on our floor, peering out. I helpfully quipped, 'Why is everyone looking out the window? Is the world ending?'

Turned out the world wasn't ending, not immediately anyway, it was just GIANT AMAZING HAIL.

When the hail continued steadily and strongly, a whole lot of us rushed outside and stood on the footpath, exclaiming and taking photos. The hail stones were the biggest I've ever seen and it was so cold they stayed on the ground for quite a while, even after the hail had stopped falling. When I walked home at 6pm there were still little piles of it in patches along the footpath.

It was so exciting and strange to see everything blanketed in white that I felt like it almost made up for missing the snow while I was away. Some guys from the office block opposite us came out and scooped up handfuls of hail. They managed to make some big hail balls which they then threw at each other and people looking out from the windows above.

I momentarily stepped out from under cover to stand in the hail - unfortunately, unlike snow, it hurt.