Did anybody else see it? The lightning was cascading through the sky for about three hours non-stop! It was the freakiest, most incredible vision I have ever seen.
It looked like a bad special effect in a Hammer Horror movie. In fact, if Baron Frankenstein wanted Igor to schedule a date to create life in an inanimate corpse, last night would’ve been the only night possible!
I will probably never see anything like it ever again - I don’t even understand how it could happen that way.
Not only did I see and hear the storm I also had the fun experience of hailstones cracking/breaking the skylight in our kitchen/dining area. The roof is flooded and our real estate agent / landlord doesn’t seem at all concerned.
Luckily we noticed the water before it hit the computer which is just underneath it.
My poor baby (7mths old) she was excited and curious at first then just really pissed off and grumpy because she wanted to go to sleep but it was too loud.
Cats wigged out big time and took shelter in their fav hidy holes.
It was terrifying and intoxicating all in one. I was sure I had lost my roof, it seemed far too loud to still be there. I was very lucky, garden trashed and garage flooded but the house held up thank goodness, I am not sure how, it leaks other times.
My demented cat loved it. Serves me right for inflicting a lot of loud bass on him as a kitten via my stereo I think.
GuanoLad, I think you’re talking about “continuous lightning”. I’ve seen it once, as a child. It is sheet lightning that flickers, but basically stays “on” for hours. We lived on the coast ,and it was out to sea. We got no rain either, but it was an interesting display.
As I’ve mentioned in other places this morning, the lightning was like nothing I have ever seen in my 43 years. And as it was accompanied by deafening continuous thunder, a cataclysmic wind and rain like you wouldn’t believe, it really was a very unique experience. Imagine lying in a railway tunnel as a train goes by within a few inches of your head…that gets somewhere near the volume that I experienced at 2.00 am. :eek:
I live in the inner north, and according to the BoM, the ‘storm’ travelled down from the outer north and then stopped dead in its tracks…dumping squillions of tonnes of water and wreaking general havoc before EVENTUALLY moving off again to the south. By then though, its energy was spent. Thank goodness.
The mop-up will take many weeks and many, MANY dollars for some unfortunate folk. One poor elderly lady watched her cat drown in her backyard…because the water was around a metre deep and rushing, the lady was unable to rescue the moggie.
I love a good thunderstorm, but this one was a bit to freakish for my liking.
I had water pouring out of one of the downstairs light fittings. The workshop flooded. The gutters overfilled and overflowed into the eaves and then down the insides of the walls and windows, and we came within centimetres of the water washing over the doorstep and into the rooms. I spent most of the storm stacking furniture and moving stuff in case the water came in. Our backyard looked like a swimming pool. And the dog went nuts. It looks like we also had a bit of a river flowing under the house and out through the workshop, which was flooded to a depth of a couple of inches.
As of today, we now have the carpets up, all the towels we own in the wash and the eaves were smashed in last night to try to stop water coming into the house are in bits all over the ground.
Worse, they’re forecasting more storms for this afternoon lasting into tomorrow, so we don’t have too much time to cleanup and batten down the hatches again.
Driving around today, I passed several cars that had been abandonned and saw highwater marks about chest high on several of Melbourne’s busiest roads.
I have never seen anything like it before, ever - they’re calling it a once in 100 years storm, and I’d believe it. Worse, it wasn’t even forecast!
We have someone coming around late this afternoon to look at the water damage in our kitchen /dining area. This is one of those times I am really glad to rent, at least I don’t have to worry about repair costs.
I’m pretty sure that it was only the urban area that was affected last night Leechy, although there WAS some earlier damage in the afternoon storm that hit the eastern 'burbs and the Yarra Valley. From what I have heard (from people I was talking to in the region yesterday) most of the hail got dumped in the foothills of the Dandenongs, and by the time it got to the Valley (a major berry, fruit and wine producing area) it had lessened to just heavy rain. I doubt that there would have been major losses.
I never seen anything like last night’s lightening either. And when it eventually passed over us rather briefly I was glad I wasn’t sitting under it for 3 hours.
I just got back from a spot of shopping, and indeed, as Hawthorne said, dem clouds are building up again. There is an electrifying taint to the air, and I suspect we are in for another wild night.
But NOTHING could ever compare to last night. :eek:
We got a pretty snazzy light and sound show out here in the East with some rain a bit later on. First I assumed someone was summoning some sort of dark beast, but then realised I was being an idiot.
Maybe us MelDopers should gather and try summoning a dark beast to see if we could re-create the funky light show.