Parts of Queensland have been pummelled by monster hail brought in by a freak storm system.
The regional city of Gympie, north of the Sunshine Coast, was showered in golf ball-sized hail, carpeting backyards in what looked like snow this afternoon.
Locals were caught off guard and quickly sought shelter inside their homes or cars.
“It just pummelled down, and the wind picked up and it poured,” Gympie resident Megan said.
A few braved the weather to collect large pieces of hail, some as large as 10 centimetres.
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The Bureau of Meteorology classifies giant hail as anything larger than five centimetres.
“We’ve had reports of up to 10-centimetre size hail around Gympie,” weather bureau senior forecaster Felim Hanniffy said.
The reason for the extreme weather event was a low-pressure trough and a humid air-mass colliding.
“It developed due to a change, a south-easterly change now that’s moving up the coast,” Hanniffy said.
