Happy New Year!

Fireworks are traditional on New Year’s Eve, but last night we here in Canberra rang in the New Year with a rather-more-exciting-than-usual fireworks show courtesy of Mother Nature. Several hours of blinding lightning and rumbling thunder were accompanied in large parts of the city by nearly 40mm of rain—and, in some southern suburbs, almost a metre of hail! To get an idea of what this looked like, check out the photo below, taken from this morning’s Canberra Times.


I was watching the storm cell tracking north on the Bureau of Meteorology’s radar site, hoping that it would maintain its path since it was headed straight for our drought-parched garden, but it took a sharp turn west just a few kilometres south of our suburb. This disappointed me—until I learnt later how severe the storm had been.

I found this out firsthand from my good mate, Michael, whose car actually stalled out in waist-deep water on his way up to our New Year’s Eve get-together last night. He had to be rescued by a big truck with a bulbar, and even then he and his brother arrived just a few minutes before midnight. At least they made it safely.

And, considering how severe the drought has been this year, one can’t really complain about such a generous outpouring of water.