hail

http://www.publico.pt/f329770

It's not very often that it snows in Lisbon. We are right on the Atlantic and are gifted with a temperate climate. It snowed here for about 10 minutes 6 or 7 years ago and it caused a lot of excitement. The time before that was in the 1950's, so you see what I mean.

This morning as I was getting ready for work, I heard a lot of thunder. This also isn't very usual here. Anyway, it wasn't raining and I went about my business. During my commute the sky opened up and there was a hell of a downpour. But more surprising was that it was a freak hail storm. The results of which are captured in the photo above. The "white stuff" is ice rather than snow. As the temperatures were no where near freezing, it melted very quickly.

I was travelling on the A5 (a highway) and am grateful that I didn't have any problems as a result of this tempest.