What Happens When God And Mother Nature Mix It Up

One of the main worries I had when I finally got around to setting up this blog was if I would ever find the time to write it!  You may not have realised it but I'm aiming to publish a post every Friday and this realisation may have escaped you because I think, so far, I have only managed two Friday posts.  Many, many, many things get in the way of my writing a post and I won't bore you with the details suffice to say that it is mostly "mammy stuff".

Now one of the things I hadn't featured in hampering my plans for world blog domination was God.  I have often wondered as to his actual existence or at the very least if he has a hearing problem but in general I'm happy to accept he's out there somewhere and, wisely, staying out of my way.  So, this week I managed to jump all the "mammy stuff" hurdles - including my mobile phone dying and  a spat with our real estate agent and it was looking good for a much anticipated Friday post.  And then God got involved and sent this doozy.

The Beast!

It would seem, however, that God didn't cook this baby up all by himself but also had the help of mother nature.  At least that's my explanation for the fact that two storm cells came together and formed The Beast - A Supercell Thunderstorm.  It hit Brisbane late Thursday afternoon just as I was about to sit down and write a post.  One minute I was out the back of the house in blazing sunshine and sweating my tooshie off and the next I was looking out my front door, with my jaw on the floor.  "Oh dear," I whispered as I stared at the sky with cold blasts of air rushing over me, "what's this?"
Within seconds, a strange cracking sound started, then a blast of thunder exploded over the house. The sky was totally dark by now and it was as if night had descended but not for long as streaks of lightning lit up the sky.  And then they came - golf ball sized hail stones fell out of the sky and pummelled everything around them.  The noise was deafening.

Now, it should be said I'm from an island on the west coast of Ireland and am no stranger to the fury of mother nature.  Storms on Achill are brutal and fierce and I've experienced some of the worst. However, in all my days, I have never seen hail stones the size of golf balls!  And we were lucky, as the storm intensified, hail the size of tennis balls fell in other parts of the city and how it fell!

Golf  Ball Sized Hail

It rained down mercilessly, like God was emptying his Eski (local slang for cooler box.)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Nothing was safe and the damage has been extensive.

Post-storm Car

Cars, in particular were badly damaged.

Smashed and Dented

Many houses had their windows smashed and the office blocks of the CBD (Central Business District) also suffered.

Beat Up Office Building

Many people took shelter in the CBD only to find themselves being showered by hailstones and glass!

At about 5pm this is how Brisbane CBD looked.

The Beast Comes To Town!

Now if that's not apocalyptic looking, then I don't know what is!

As the hail abated the wind intensified and ripped through the city tearing up trees and taking roofs with it as it went.

Bye Bye Roof

Bye Bye Ute

Back in our part of town the hail had thankfully turned to rain and it was sheeting down.  Things were starting to look a little more like a "normal" storm.  Of course, power outtages and internet blackouts followed and so yours truly had to abandon all plans for posting on a Friday - again!

However, having seen all the post-storm damage I'm incredibly grateful that we came out of it totally unscathed and that nobody was killed.  And of course it provided me with  material for a great post! Ah the Lord works in mysterious ways.

I've Got You In My Sights - Brisbane In The Eye Of The Storm