Outback travellers stunned by 'white Christmas' hailstorm

Thousands of homes and businesses have lost power and parts of the landscape have been transformed by hail as wild weather sweeps across Western Australia's remote interior.The weather began in WA's Midwest, Pilbara and Goldfields late yesterday, impacting communities across thousands of kilometres.About 15,000 homes and businesses across Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Merredin, Kondinin and surrounding communities remained without power after a fault in the 600-kilometre feeder line supplying the region.Station caretaker Kez Mac was driving north of Mount Magnet, about 560km north-east of Perth, when the hail began striking her vehicle."Hail just literally covered the ground, to the point it was as if we were going to have a white Christmas," she said."Outside it was all white, trees have all been stripped. It was red rock and white ground."Kez Mac was driving near Mount Magnet when she was caught in a hailstorm. (Supplied: Kez Mac)Ms Mac said she had never seen anything like it in her time living in the region, with the approaching hail storm seemingly indistinguishable from a regular rain event."It was definitely a real deep grey as we were coming in and approaching it but you don't really know what hail looks like until you're actually in it," she said."It started raining obviously and then it got a bit heavier and then 'bang' it started smashing on the windscreen and the car."A series of weather events, including a hailstorm, hit parts of WA's Midwest on Tuesday. (Supplied: Kez Mac)After the hailstorm passed, a dust storm whipped up as she pulled into Mount Magnet."There's a fair bit of debris floating around on the road now and branches," Ms Mac said."I've got dust all over my mouth. I'm still chewing on sand."Harvest haltedAbout 16mm of rain had fallen in Ogilvie, 60km from Geraldton, bringing harvest to a halt for farmers.Harrison Pluschke said he had about two weeks of work to go on his property."It's been a pretty wet harvest with a couple of days of rain over previous weeks," he said. Harrison Pluschke stopped harvesting due to rain today. (ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)"There were four or five days where we couldn't harvest."It's all part of the game."Mr Pluschke said rainfall had varied, with some neighbours reporting up to 50mm and others as little as 5mm.Scott Bridgeman says weather conditions have been cooler than previous years' harvests. (ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)In Northampton, farmer Scott Bridgeman was thankful for the cooler, milder conditions."The hot weather is a bit more stressful with fires," he said."It's nice to have the cool weather, we don't have to worry about the hard running of it."'Month's worth' of rainBureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said the system which hit Mount Magnet was particularly intense and slow-moving."They had 30 millimetres [of rain] fall in just 30 minutes," he said."That's the equivalent of multiple months' worth of rainfall for them."While sporadic storms were common for the time of year, Mr Narramore said the multi-day storm was notable."The northern parts of the Wheatbelt and our inland areas are getting showers and thunderstorms day after day which is a little bit more unusual," he said.Mr Narramore said "hit and miss" storms would stick around WA's inland areas over the coming days.State's north sweltersMeanwhile, Mr Narramore said cloud cover across the state had eased heatwave conditions that were experienced in parts of the Kimberley and Pilbara last week.In the Kimberley, the record for the hottest day in November was broken in Fitzroy Crossing and Mandora last Wednesday.Temperatures reached 47.1 degrees in Fitzroy Crossing and 47.4 degrees in Mandora.Across the Pilbara, temperatures hit the low 40s."Thankfully, the last day or two we have seen those conditions ease, Mr Narramore said."We're seeing widespread cloud cover, showers, and even some cooler wind as well."It might even be five to eight degrees below average for this time of the year."