Weather Tracker: Storm Destruction and 5cm Hailstones Hit Southeast Australia | Environment

The Australian state of Victoria was hit by thunderstorms on Wednesday. The town of Casterton was particularly hard hit, with 21mm of rain falling in just 30 minutes, followed by large hailstones.

Vehicles and properties were severely damaged, with reports of windows broken and tiles blown off roofs due to strong winds.

The hail trail was estimated to be 120 miles (200 km) long and affected vegetation and agricultural land in western Victoria. Some farmers reported that up to 70% of rapeseed crops were destroyed. Some hail accumulation layers up to 15 cm deep were also reported. However, the largest hailstones reported by the Bureau of Meteorology were 5cm in diameter and fell in the rural Wonwondah district at around 8.30pm.

More severe weather is likely to occur in Australia in the next few days as a cold front sweeps across the country from the west. This is likely to bring strong winds and dust storms, along with additional storms producing large to very large hail across much of the southern part of the country.

France also experienced severe thunderstorms and very heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday as a trough moved eastward across the region. Much of southern France was on an orange alert for severe weather, and parts of central France were on a red alert for flooding over the two days, with some alerts continuing into Friday. As a result, schools from kindergarten to high school were closed.

In addition to hailstorms and strong winds, lightning was frequently observed, with more than 100mm of rain recorded in places in 24 hours, causing devastating flooding.

Fog caused major disruption in Istanbul, Turkey earlier this week. On Wednesday morning, visibility reduced to less than 500 meters, impacting both land and maritime traffic. Some ferry services were suspended and the Eurasian Tunnel, which connects Europe and Asia under the Bosphorus, suffered long delays on both sides. As a result, traffic congestion was very high on both sides of the city.