Hailstorm in Summer on September 19th, 2014

#somethingnew #fromwhereIstand #wheatherphenomenon - stood on about 10cm thick of hails 

I'm from the tropic, so at first I was scared but then I was quite amused to see that much of ice cubes poured down from the sky with lots of noise on the roofs...in summer! Good thing was that the storm stopped right at the time I had to leave the house for work. It was such a joyful bike ride on the road covered with lots of hail and through some thick fog. I found that day....so amazingly entertaining!!

Dark sky above the city center of Florence. Image courtesy of florensics.wordpress.com

The sky looked completely dark, “Oh no! It’s going to rain!” I said to myself. I had to go to work at 13:30 every day and the fact that the sky was so dark made me a bit reluctant to go out. However, no matter how I felt, I had to get ready and go anyway. A while later, I heard ‘bang bang’ at the backyard. I thought, now what?  It sounded like a neighbor was getting himself busy before the rain comes.  I went quickly to the kitchen window to have a look, but I saw no one outside. And the ‘bang bang’ continued, this time harder and even harder when I stood in my dining room. Then I realized, the sound came from the roof and the attic above my dining room sounded as if it was going to collapse.

my backyard covered in white

I ran quickly to the bathroom window when I saw what looked like raindrops but bigger, thick and white. A hailstorm! I was so excited and started to run around in the house from the front to the back, before I finally grabbed my mobile phone to freeze the moments.  The ‘bang bang’ continued, so hard that somehow scared me, but I was more excited than afraid. I wanted to open the kitchen door to the backyard, but decided not to in the end, as suddenly hail poured down toward the door glasses where I was. The hail poured down furiously for about ten minutes, then silent, only the yard, the balcony and the roads were covered with so much ‘ice cubes’. 

"ice cubes...lots of them"

As the hailstorm stopped right at the time for me to go to work and the sun began to shine! I immediately get my bike and began to ride to work with extreme joy! I couldn’t wait to bike along Vialle Macchiavelli all the way to Viale Michelangelo! It was a little chaotic along the road, there was a traffic jam as some trees fell down. The road was wet and slippery and the temperature was cold although it was still summer.

my way to work .... looked mysterious like roads in fairy tales

The situation at the Piazzale Michelangelo was also chaotic, I could hear the ambulance’ siren loud and clear. Apparently some tourists at the Piazzale got injured by the hailstorm.  I continued my ride to the school, although I made many stops along the way just to take photos and feel the chill. It was the 1^st weather phenomenon I experience in Florence.   

Situation at Vialle Michelangelo, workers were busy removing tree stems that fell down on the road