1947 Sydney hailstorm

1947 Sydney hailstorm

A boat at Rose Bay in water which is being churned by the hailstones.
Type	Supercell
Formed	10:00 am, 1 January 1947 Over Blue Mountains
Dissipated	3:30 pm, 1 January 1947 East of Bondi, offshore
Damage	£750,000 (est., 1947) A$45 million (est., 2007)

The 1947 Sydney hailstorm was a natural disaster which struck Sydney, Australia, on 1 January 1947. The storm cell developed on the morning of New Year's Day, a public holiday in Australia, over the Blue Mountains, hitting the city and dissipating east of Bondi in the mid-afternoon. At the time, it was the most severe storm to strike the city since recorded observations began in 1792.^[1][2]

The high humidity, temperatures and weather patterns of Sydney increased the strength of the storm. The cost of damages from the storm were, at the time, approximately £750,000 (US$3 million); this is the equivalent of around A$45 million in modern figures.^[3] The supercell dropped hailstones larger than 8 centimetres (3.1 in) in diameter,^[4][5] with the most significant damage occurring in the central business district and eastern suburbs of Sydney.^[6][7]

The event caused around 1000 injuries, with between 200 and 350 people requiring hospitalisation or other medical attention, predominantly caused by broken glass shards.^[4][8] The majority of severe injuries reported were suffered by people on Sydney's beaches, where many were without shelter.^[1] The size of the hailstones were the largest seen in Sydney for 52 years, until the 1999 Sydney hailstorm caused A$1.7 billion in insured damage in becoming the costliest natural disaster in Australian history.^[5]