BLANKETED: Sheryl and Hugh Gibney on their back porch after Sunday afternoon's hailstorm. Photo/supplied
BLANKETED: Sheryl and Hugh Gibney on their back porch after Sunday afternoon's hailstorm. Photo/supplied
Te Puke residents in upper Cameron Road, Boucher Ave and McBeth Drive were startled by a hailstorm on Sunday afternoon.
"I've lived in this house for 42 years and never seen anything like it before," said Sheryl Gibney, who shared photos of the chilly event.
Mrs Gibney lives beside TePuke Intermediate and when her husband Hugh went out he saw "a line drawn across the playground where the hail lay on one side and the other was bare."
WINTRY WHITE: Cameron Road near Te Puke Intermediate was turned into an 'ice trucker' paradise on Sunday afternoon. Photo/supplied
She checked with friends around Te Puke and they reported "a smattering" in Raymond Ave and Hastings Street but nothing in Washer Place. Another friend went up Te Matai Road and found hail there about 4pm.
The hailstones were small and the storm wasn't loud. "It wasn't roaring but the hail was still on the back lawn until about 1pm on Monday," said Mrs Gibney.
Also impressed by the hailstorm was Karyl Gunn Thomas who was travelling in the Fairview - Boucher Ave area.
She supplied photos taken about an hour after the hail fell.
Sunday's hailstorm followed another short sharp burst that caught shoppers out on Friday afternoon. That one was accompanied by rain, which melted the little beads of ice within five minutes.
MetService was predicting cold, frosty mornings this week and was warning that winter hasn't quite left us, with another damp southerly flow expected next week.
COOL FUN: Dilpreet Gill, 12, and Wairere Borrell, 9, playing in the unexpected "snow" at McBeth Drive. Photo/supplied
