Hail and thunder storms have been sweeping across the region bringing an end to the sunny weather.
Showers broke out over Manchester and Oldham with reports of hailstones as big as golf balls.
Some hailstones in Manchester were so big they caused car alarms to go off.
Thunderstorms also brought heavy rain during the sultry weather, which has seen temperatures up to 19 degrees Celsius.
Twitter users reported the weather as ‘apocalyptic’ and ‘bi-polar’ as sunshine suddenly gave way to thunder and hailstones around 3pm.
United star Rio Ferdinand tweeted: “These hailstones are huge… Steroid filled! Lucky because I almost bopped out in shorts today!”
ITV’s weather expert Fred Talbot was unconcerned, however, advising his Twitter followers: “Do not be scared. Have a cup of tea.”
Stormy weather and heavy rain have been forecast to continue for the rest of the day and evening giving way to lighter rain tomorrow.
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Hail the size of golf balls! Utter BS.
I don't believe him.....Have a cup of tea! He's winding me up.
No! Surely this must be proof if proof were needed of the effects of "GLOBAL WARMING". I'm ready with my tin hat and standing like Don Quixote to repulse the weather.
He is coming. Repent, repent!
Lord Toffee, your wrong there Son, I can vouch for em, cause I have just driven past Castle Hawk and two of the rascals bounced off my car..........
Most often in Britain, 'large hailstones' are actually conglomerations of smaller stones frozen together, The ones that fell in 1983 were such. That is not to say that what fell was small. Some were considerably bigger than golf balls, and the smaller stones making them up were as big as 1 cm across.
i remember running outside, taking my life in my hands, to gather some and put them in the freezer, to be later cut open to study their makeup.
I still have the anorak.
..said the reporter, live from Didsbury Golf Club
I had multicoloured hailstones the size of beachballs in my garden.
Oh no, hang on, it was a beachball, sorry about that.
Global warming the new way of saying temperature variation.
Its been going on as long as this world has existed.
Explain why the Romans grew grapes here for wine, the Thames froze over in medievial times and the 19the Centuary so much they could hold bonfires on it.
Wake upeverybody and realise nature is providing the poloticians with a great excuse ti take more money of us (TAX)
Yes, I agree it was all a bit rum. There I was, minding my own at around three this afternoon when an ill wind started to blow. In the distance to the West, I saw a mass of black cloud, swelling and heaving, and in no time at all it had devoured the sun. Robbed of it's light and warmth, I eyed the boiling, churning mass of black with fear and trepidation, utterly convinced that at any moment, the four horsemen of the apocalypse would burst through to wreak havoc among humankind. I briefly considered falling to my knees, shrieking and beseeching their forgiveness... But then it started to rain, so I trotted off indoors and put the kettle on instead.
Great, so Rio Ferdinand makes a ''tweet'' at it becomes news... investigative journalism at its finest....
Pictures, or it didn't happen.
And I've told you a million times, do not exaggerate!
"reports of hailstones as big as golf balls" - yeah, like what? Who says? Who's reported them? Are the people who've found them wanting to stay anonymous?
Or is it actually Chinese whispers or even outright fabrication? Is it really that hard to follow up sources? Or is it just easier to exaggerate stuff for an eye-catching headlining? I hear the Sunday Sport is back up and running. They love this sort of nonsense.
You can tell which ones on here are the youngsters
But an increase in extreme weather events was exactly what those proposing global warming predicted, and heavy thunderstorms would seem to fit the bill.
How can we measure if its an increase or decrease when we only have the merest fraction of data to compare with?