Almost a White Christmas

Sunday 2 January 2005 - you would expect a hot summer day in Johannesburg, and it was, around 27 degrees Celsius by noon. We were enjoying a braai with friends under the shade of our large pecan nut tree. Quite suddenly the refreshing breeze became strong gusts, the sky went dark quickly and we rushed all the barbeque stuff inside as it started to rain, then hail. The hail became a thundering noise, shredding leaves off trees and plants, filling up gutters, and covering the lawn so thickly that when it was all over our humid summer's day had become a temporary winter wonderland! We made 'snow' balls out of pellets of hail about the size of peas, and even managed an angel in the snow ... well ice really. 18 hours later our gutters still have ice in them (just a little but it is there) and our poor garden is a real mess of finely chopped leaves over everything!