The sound of shattering glass

My Australian friends. I do not want to dwell on the weather of this dairy cow and windmill country, BUT today was just so bad, that it was actually funny, which makes me want to share it.

There were dark grey skies of doom.

There was hard continous rain interspersed with hail.

There was wind, but not just any wind. This wind reached 130 km per hour and caused a crane to collapse onto a university building (in another city in The Netherlands) injuring 3 people. It also caused the entire train system to shut down, and ICC staff sent home 1.5 hours early before it got even worse. The wind meant that some work staff in other organisations were ordered not to leave the building and couldn't get home. It also caused one of the windows here in Rod's place to smash (I think a tile fell off someone elses roof or something).

Meanwhile where was I?

I was OUT, yes... I didn't actually realise how serious it was. I was out and about walking the town... well, trying to walk, but mostly standing still in order not to get blown away. At one point I took cover in a large department store to avoid the horizontal hail. Anyway, I made it to all my appointments and back home unscathed.

I hadn't seen weather this bad since... well... last Thursday actually when winds were reaching an estimated 150 km per hour.