It was short after 2:30 Friday afternoon when a weird, continuous sound coming from nowhere was heard. initially it was a “Toc!” here and a “Toc!” there and within minutes the feeling of being “bombarded” from all sides. A hail storm in Athens and the sound of hail balls knocking on the windows.
In zero seconds the two cats had interrupted their midday nap and rushed to find a shelter from this phenomenon they could not classify. The older and more experienced cat went right under the couch, the younger one first ran up and down not knowing what to do, run to the bedroom and jumped under the bed.
The hail was followed by a strong rainfall. Surprise! The whole “storm” lasted less than ten minutes.
Απίστευτο χαλάζι σε μέγεθος μπαλάκι γκολφ ΤΩΡΑ στην Αθήνα.
Τεράστιες ζημιές σε αυτοκίνητα αλλά και τραυματισμοί😯 pic.twitter.com/Ss4NbgSCVo— MAGIC of GRATITUDE (@varaderokon07) October 4, 2019
Αs hail is rather rare in Athens and thus in a month like October, social media were flooded with “χαλάζι” -hail – posts, videos and pictures of ice balls resting on hand palms.
Ελα, γύρισε ο Κούλης Αθήνα? Μας πήρε ο διάολος απ'το χαλάζι! pic.twitter.com/1a213bZqAa
— Paradise lost (@tsotsokou) October 4, 2019
Ίπποκρατειο τωρα pic.twitter.com/MSw89GNOBu
— Η ΣουRTούκω ® 👀 (@sourtoukw) October 4, 2019
The hail fell in districts of Athens, in south, north and east suburbs like Pagrati, Ambelokipoi, Ilissia, Ilioupolis, Vyronas, Palaio Faliro, Marrousi.
Ποσειδώνος σήμερα 14.30 Ποσειδώνος σήμερα 14.35
(χαλάζι) pic.twitter.com/9tqN2kclhN— Αφροδίτη Ασλανίδου (@AfAfroditi) October 4, 2019
The hail fall was dense, the balls had the size of …well…. opinions are diverging.
Hail in Markopoulos, East Attica.
Some claim, hail had the size of walnut, of a ping pong ball or even the size of a gulf ball.
Χαλάζι σε μέγεθος μπάλας γκολφ pic.twitter.com/ZvyFnSRvhO
— nikolas adoniou (@nikolasfarao1) October 4, 2019
I can assure you that in our neighborhood it had the size of hazelnut. And melted pretty quickly, therefore I did not manage to take any picture.
On the occasion of the conflicting perception of hail, I would like to ask residents and visitors of Athens this:
Loading ...There are reports that the hail caused damages to vehicles as well as to solar water heaters.
The best Tweet on “xalazi” in Athens was, however, this:
έριχνε χαλάζι και άνοιξα την μπαλκονόπορτα για να βάλω κάτι μέσα, και μπήκε στο δωμάτιο ένα χελιδόνι (το οποίο προφανώς προσπαθούσε να σωθεί), του έδωσα νερό, κουτσούλισε την καρέκλα μου δύο φορές και μετά το άφησα να φύγει 😮😂 pic.twitter.com/fefIOYdQ0E
— Giorgos (@unconsciouskite) October 4, 2019
“Hail was falling and I opened the balcony door to put something inside, a swallow (apparently seeking shelter) flew into the room, I gave it water, It pooed on my chair twice, and then I let it fly away.”
