A STORM MEED

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 31

A STORM MEED

HAILSTONES SIZE OF CHILD'S HEAD !i I (From Oub Owir Cohbispootjbht.) LONDON; November 29. Anoflroial report is stated to have been r^ ceived to-day ffoirr Monsieur Cadet, director of the Central Observatory in Indo-China, of a storm of hailstones that dwarfs everything hitherto recorded, even in the Book of Exodus. Were it not given on such authority it -would' be hard' to- attach credence to the following curiously steep.story: — "At the village of Phaima, about two miles from Langson, the hailstones pierced! ■a roof in 20 places, making holes Bin in. diameter, and being as large as a child's head. At Langson itself the soldiers pioked! up a hailstone as big as.a. nan's head, and! Dr Portal found one weighing |lb. Others weighing nearly £lb seem to have been common. ' ' - "The storm took place on April 30, and, beginning in the Mai-Pha Mountains, travelled in a long line, leaving destruction, • and desolation in its " path. The damages were enormous, ' but, though - many cattle _ were killed,, no "hmnan Eyes -seem-i to' have* been lost. During the height of the storm - the lightning was almost perpetual, seeming to play over the -whole- zenith and rum Ding along i/he ground, while the tempera-, ture- rose -to- over >97deg. F,ahr. in the' shade. The first hanstones were as large-as, eggs, and increased in. size until they ' became veritable projectiles, r mostljr -shaped like . icicles formed~round an ice kernel as big as a ha^el nut." ' v -- - M.- Cadet concludes -by saying that - such hailstones were never -seen before, and that probably ft will be long \ before' similar phenomena are 'again observed. Yes, "one would -think so| '