Footage of extreme storm: Giant hail Down Under

While winter is setting in here, summer is in full swing in the southern hemisphere. In Australia, storms are producing hail over 15 cm in diameter.

Severe thunderstorms have caused extensive damage in the state of Queensland on the east coast of Australia over the past few days.

Around Gympie, a town of about 25,000 located about 180 km north of Brisbane, a violent hailstorm brought enormous destruction on Monday 4th December.

As shown in the video above, the hail reached a diameter of over 10 centimetres. The largest hailstones were up to 15 centimetres thick. This comes very close to the Australian hail record of around 16 centimetres in diameter.

Only in supercells are the strong thunderstorm updrafts long-lasting enough to produce such large hail.

Layers of ice can form around the hailstones as they are carried up and down through the cloud by the updraft, allowing it to grow in size.

As the hailstones grow larger and heavier, gravity takes over, and the storm's updraft can no longer support the weight of the hailstones, causing them to fall to the ground.

Australia is in the prime storm season as spring ends and summer begins “Down Under.” However, such life-threatening hailstorms are also rather rare there.