At about 3pm on Thursday 23 August 2018 here near Lisburn in Northern Ireland I heard heavy rain on the roof.
At about 3:05 this turned into the biggest heaviest downpour that I have ever experienced. It was hail, deafeningly noisy and it became impossible to see out through the windows. No wind but I was afraid that it would damage our cars.
Then the hail stopped as suddenly as it had begun at about 3:07. It was slushy, hadn't damaged the cars and hadn't lain in the lawn. My barometer had not noticed anything unusual and at about 3:10 the sky cleared and the sun came out.
What could have caused this?
In all my 80 years of flying, sailing, etc. I have never known anything like this; hail, August!
