HEAVY FAIL OF HAIL

Northern Advocate, 10 August 1934, Page 7

HEAVY FAIL OF HAIL

REMARKABLE 1 VISITATION. ROAD BLOCKED. ■ ■ - ROOF. COLLAPSES. (Special to “Northern Advocate.*’) AUCKLAND, This Day. A severe electrical storm occurred at Warkworth and surrounding districts yesterday afternoon. Associated with rho thunderstorm was a phenomenal fall of hail which covered a wide area, extending from two miles outside Warkworth to Leigh. The centre of the storm appeared to he Whangateau, midway between Matakana. and Leigh, the road linking those two places being covered with hail-to, a depth of two feet. The hills in the vicinity of Whangateau and Matakana, as well as the surrounding country, were white with hail as if there had been a particularly heavy fall of snow. This is an unprecedented occurrence in the district. The fall of hail in Warkworth was slight.

This morning Big Omaha Bay presented an appearance of Antarctic regi(.ns, big blocks of ice caused by hail unshed down from the surrounding hillsides floating in the bay. A fairly large area was covered by this floating ice.

The “valley” of a double-gabled house at Whangatoau was completely filled with hail, the weight of which caused the roof to collapse and flood the interior of the house. All traffic on the Matakana-Loigh Load was blocked last night, the Auck--1; nd-Loigh service car being held up a few miles outside Matakana. Traffic was able to got through this morning, a’thongh several inches of hail still \ covered the road.

The postmaster at Matakana reported this morning that 20 telephone lines were thrown out of order yesterday as the result of lightning fusing the cable boxes, but were restored this morning. The fall of hail was exceptionally heavy on Mr Arthur E. Wilson’s farm property at Ti Point. Last night and this morning-Mr Wilson was unable to use his milking shed, as the area of flat land on which it is built was covered in hail to a depth of four feet and it was impossible to ; got the cows to the shed.