329 



wide, covering the suburbs of Richmond, Keswick, Good- 

 wood, Unley, and Mitch am. Rain accompanined the hail- 

 stones, in great sheets, and gusts of wind of cyclonic violence 

 came at intervals. In the main line of the storm the sound 

 was that of a continuous roar that drowned all other sounds, 

 but on either side of this belt it was described as resembling 

 that of the "firing of heavy and continuous musketry" and "a 

 continuous roll of deafening thunder." The daily Press 

 spoke of the round hailstones as "bullets" and others as of 

 "fantastic shapes." Trams were stopped to prevent the break- 

 ing of the windows by the falling hailstones, fowls were killed, 

 and much damage was done to roofs and glass-houses. The 

 roads were covered to a depth of several inches by the hail. 



Vegetation suffered severely. Tender plants were beaten 

 to the ground, leaves in large quantities were stripped from 

 the trees or left in shreds on the branches. Fruit that was 

 in season was extensively damaged. Olives, oranges, and 

 lemons were knocked down or damaged on the trees. Pieces 

 were scooped out of oranges and lemons, in some cases ex- 

 tending to an inch in length, and penetrated through the 

 rind to the fruit. 



Hailstorms occurred, on the same morning, at many 

 places on the Mount Lofty Ranges and at Yankalilla, where 

 at the latter place a terrific thunderstorm was reported to 

 have occurred, accompanied by a cyclone and hail the size 

 of pigeons' eggs. The wind uprooted trees and blew down 

 iron fences and windmills. What were believed to be water- 

 spouts were observed off the coast at Norman ville, the sea- 

 port adjacent to Yankalilla. 



Meteorological Conditions. 



On May 10, two days before the Adelaide storm, the 

 daily weather chart showed an area of low pressure, covering 

 the Great Bight, which had moved up from the south and 

 had its 29'9° isobar on the coastline. At the same time there 

 was a strong anticyclonic centre, situated to the westward of 

 Perth, and a weak "high" covering New South Wales, with 

 a flat barometer extending over the rest of the continent. 



On the following day, May 11, the chart showed that 

 the low-pressure centre had moved northward, forming a 

 well-marked, V-shaped depression between the "highs" on 

 the west and east, the centre being due south of Adelaide, 

 with a reading of 29'6° off Cape Northumberland, and a 

 broad isobaric trough (29*9°) had established itself from the 

 south coast across the continent to the Gulf of Carpentaria. 

 This monsoonal trough brought warm temperatures to the 

 country lying to the westward of Adelaide. 



