A hailstorm that lasted for just a matter of minutes, ripped through the Riverland yesterday evening, causing significant damage to crops.
A severe thunderstorm warning for damaging winds and hail was issued for the region about 5pm on Monday, with the worst of the hail hitting just after 6pm.
Local farmer Neville told ABC Radio Adelaide that a 10km-wide area of his family's farm was hit hard: "It looks like it's come up through Murray Bridge, Swan Reach, Wynarka ... pretty much in that main strip, anywhere in its path, there's not a bunch, not an apricot. It would be hundreds of millions of dollars of damage."
Farmers in some areas of South Australia have enjoyed recent rainfall, including on the Yorke Peninsula. Port Broughton-based farmer Matthew McDonald wrote on social media: "200mm of rain for the year since mid-April. Blessed to be harvesting the results we are."
But, it was somewhat of a different story for the Riverland, where this is the fourth consecutive year that production in SA has been heavily impacted by such a weather event.
Steve Nitschke, in Loxton, said: "A mate lost most his cereal crop to frost cut for hay but wasn’t a lot of bulk. Left the rest and small hail has wiped out 100 percent. Mother Nature is so cruel. Grapes, almonds, pecans, stone fruit and cereal crops destroyed in a couple minutes.”
Source: adelaidenow.com.au
