Canberra has been raining almost everyday since I arrived three weeks ago. However yesterday night, there was a massive storm and quite an awful locations were flooded and covered with hailstones. The worst being in the city central (civil) which was being covered with hailstones (see the photos : courtesy of John Gordon)
Traffic around city is pretty havoc in the morning on my way to work as fire brigade and council were trying their best to clear the 'ice'.
Extracted from yahoo.com.au
Canberra bracing for another storm
Canberra is bracing for a second major storm as it cleans up from a damaging "supercell" storm, which dropped up to one metre of hail and caused chaos in the centre of the capital.
Hailstones as large as golf balls and winds over 50km/h lashed the city for less than 30 minutes on Tuesday night but left trees defoliated and turned nature strips into mud baths.
The Bureau of Meteorology on Wednesday said the storm which hit Canberra was a supercell, the same type of storm responsible for the devastating twisters of Tornado Alley in the US.
"This storm was an ultra-efficient, thermo-dynamic machine," a bureau spokesman said.
"It feeds itself."
The supercell formed about 10pm on Tuesday and about an hour later it hit Civic, the centre of Canberra.
The storm forced the closure of the Australian National University, two high schools, government departments and many roads while it damaged the ACT Magistrates Court and ACT Policing headquarters.
Canberra's main retail centre, The Canberra Centre, was forced to shut its doors as insurers moved in to assess the cost of extensive flooding in the recently redeveloped centre.
"At this stage it is too early to comment on the extent of the damage or the costs associated with it," centre manager Rob Mansfield said.
Bulldozers were called in to clear metre deep ice drifts in Civic as commuters awoke to peak hour horror in a city unused to traffic jams.
Emergency Services Agency (ESA) acting commissioner David Prince said the erratic nature of the storms had created problems.
"It's too early to tell how this storm compares with previous storms in terms of damage and disruption," Mr Prince told reporters.
"The storms have been sporadic and erratic; we're not quite sure where they're going to hit and with what severity."
Mr Prince warned the damage caused meant any storm that hit the city on Wednesday would be particularly difficult to respond to.
"The ESA is warning residents in the areas affected by last night's storm, especially Civic, to be aware of the dangers with extensive flooding and damage throughout the city," Mr Prince said.
"This could present an increased risk to the community if another storm hits this afternoon or tonight as predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology," he said.
A low-level or yellow warning has been issued by the ESA with the bureau spokesman saying there is the chance of more thunderstorms later on Wednesday.
Mr Prince said the State Emergency Service (SES) had responded to 170 calls for help since the storm hit.
"ACT SES volunteers have been working overtime since late last night attending to jobs across the affected area from Civic out to Belconnen."
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