HAILSTORM AT MOUNT SOMERS

Kumara Times, Issue 2293, 3 January 1884, Page 3

HAILSTORM AT MOUNT SOMERS

In describing a hailstorm which occurred in the Mount Somers district on Christmas Day, a correspondent of the Christchurcli Press writes :—" Probably jio place in Canterbury can compare with the districts of Alford Forest and Mount Somers for variety of and extraordinary changes in climate. Recently reports have come to hand of extraordinary hailstorms occurring in these districts, but the accounts now to hand seem entirely beyond credence, and were it not for the fact that my informant gives his statement in such a way as to leave no room for doubt, I should hesitate to communicate his account of a storm occurring in the Mount Somers district on Christmas Day. My informant is a shepherd in the employ of E. G. Wright. He was in Mr Wright's place at Gawler Downs on Christmas evening, and states that between five and six o'clock a most severe storm passed over the district. His attention was first attracted by the falling of a hailstone as large as a bantam fowl's egg. He was proceeding outside with the intention of picking the hailstone up, but was driven back by the falling of others still larger. The stones kept falling and pattering on the roof of the room occupied by the shepherd, other employes, and eight or nine holes were made through the iron ridging of the roof. The storm was not like an ordinary hail storm, but continued for some time, and in half an hour the ground was covered with hail stones resembling solid pieces of ice, many of them beeng as large as a hen's egg. They lay on the ground several hours before melting, and wherever they fell made deep indentations."