Australia’s Disasters

After Weeks of Fires, Australia Has to Deal With Violent Storms

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via Reuters

Hail covering the ground in Canberra, Australia (Image courtesy of npr.org).

Lena Edwards, Staff Writer

Australia, which has had raging fires for the past few weeks, has had yet another disaster. The continent has finally gotten some rain, but the violent storms are almost as extreme as the fires. Not only has there been wind speeds at up to 70 mph, but there were also large hail storms and, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, 1.7 inches of rain 120 miles from Melbourne.

Car windows and even roofs of buildings have been smashed by the baseball-sized hail, and topsoil has been washed away by the staggering amounts of rain. There were also many flash flood warnings throughout the country, making it even more dangerous to live in Australia than it was previously (Washington Post).

Car window smashed by hail (image courtesy of weather.com).

Many Australians were originally happy to see the rain, which was helping to tame some of the wildfires, including Russel Crowe who posted a picture on Twitter with the caption, “My place 10 weeks ago after the fire had gone through, and this morning after a big weekend of rain.”

The joy was short-lived, as the rain quickly became too much and people like Tom Swann posted videos on Twitter with captions such as “Very large hail plummeting down in CBR. Stripped the trees, killed birds chaos on the roads.”

There have even been warnings about trees possibly falling, the roots getting weak from both the fires and storms. With all the disasters, Australians are worried for their future. For now, though, the small continent will just have to keep pushing forward and hoping for the best.