Arrived at Vezac in the Dordogne yesterday, very hot (low to mid 30s) and then the predicted "thundery showers" arrived about 3.30am. We've read/heard about thunderstorms with hailstones the size of golf balls, but this was our first experience of one (well, probably not golf balls but marbles at least!). On cleaning the equivalent of a woodland floor off the van roof this morning we discovered a fair few dints and dinges left as a souvenir of the event. Luckily the rest of the van and the car appear to be unscathed. Certainly an experience to remember!
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We were in Tonnere many years ago when a violent hailstorm hit. Some of the hail was about the size of a tennis ball. Any vehicle parked out in the open had enormous dents and one very posh Mercedes had its windscreen smashed.
One good thing was that the white bird stained canvas on our Holtkamper ended up dazzling white
Quote: Originally posted by bofs on 06/9/2022
Arrived at Vezac in the Dordogne yesterday, very hot (low to mid 30s) and then the predicted "thundery showers" arrived about 3.30am. We've read/heard about thunderstorms with hailstones the size of golf balls, but this was our first experience of one (well, probably not golf balls but marbles at least!). On cleaning the equivalent of a woodland floor off the van roof this morning we discovered a fair few dints and dinges left as a souvenir of the event. Luckily the rest of the van and the car appear to be unscathed. Certainly an experience to remember!
You at La Cabane?
------------- Grahame
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Quote: Originally posted by bofs on 06/9/2022
Arrived at Vezac in the Dordogne yesterday, very hot (low to mid 30s) and then the predicted "thundery showers" arrived about 3.30am. We've read/heard about thunderstorms with hailstones the size of golf balls, but this was our first experience of one (well, probably not golf balls but marbles at least!). On cleaning the equivalent of a woodland floor off the van roof this morning we discovered a fair few dints and dinges left as a souvenir of the event. Luckily the rest of the van and the car appear to be unscathed. Certainly an experience to remember!
Shows how localised weather can be.
We live just a few miles away in Cenac. We were awoken by the constant flashes of lightning from about 3 - 4 am - and that's with the shutters closed - yet we only heard one fairly distant rumble of thunder. My wife said we had about 2 mins of rain - seems about right as I've had to water mosts of the plants this evening.
Eldest lad is over for a holiday. The two of us went for a canoe trip on the Dordoge from La Bouysse (next to Soliel Plage) to Beynac today. River is still only a few inches deep in quite a few places - hence gabares from Roque Gageac can't get up as far as Castlenaud for example.
And according to the local press the Rex Cinema in Sarlat was flooded out last night!
Quote: Originally posted by SGThomas on 06/9/2022
We were in Tonnere many years ago when a violent hailstorm hit. Some of the hail was about the size of a tennis ball. Any vehicle parked out in the open had enormous dents and one very posh Mercedes had its windscreen smashed.
One good thing was that the white bird stained canvas on our Holtkamper ended up dazzling white
We bought a brand new Mini back in the eighties and got caught in hailstorm while in the countryside. Hail was the size of golf balls. I found a bus stop and reversed into it however the hail was hitting the front of the car and it sounded like bullets ricochetting off rocks. We also had a glass sun roof which added to the worry.
Ended up with a few dings on our new Mini however brand new Vauxhalls in a parking lot were not so lucky and over 100 cars were badly damaged. They were auctioned off a couple of months later.
We're at Les 2 Vallees at the moment, as meeting the caravan engineer here for a long overdue van service. We'll be having a look at La Cabane though, for future reference, although we're quite happy here for the moment.
Surprised how busy everywhere is - this site is about two thirds full, and Le Capeyrou had the Complet signs out yesterday. Mind you, I suppose it is a tourist hotspot.
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We're at Les 2 Vallees at the moment, as meeting the caravan engineer here for a long overdue van service. We'll be having a look at La Cabane though, for future reference, although we're quite happy here for the moment.
Surprised how busy everywhere is - this site is about two thirds full, and Le Capeyrou had the Complet signs out yesterday. Mind you, I suppose it is a tourist hotspot.
Dordogne was rammed this time last year - we thought it was possibly a post-COVID thing, but perhaps not!
We once experienced a tremendous hailstorm whilst camping at l'Ardechois in Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut. We were in a trailer tent and thought the golfball-sized hailstones were going to damage the canvas, they were pelting down so violently.
When the storm abated, lots of caravan roofs were dented. Our canvas dried out unscathed.
It was an incredible sight but not an experience I'd care to repeat in a hurry!
We were in a similar storm in the Vendee last year.
We were on a sheltered pitch, the weather was fine and dry and the forecast showed no signs of bad weather approaching. We’d had a few drinks so we merrily bedded down for the night leaving the roof lights open and also, stupidly, the awning rolled out, pegged and strapped down which is something we never normally do.
We were awoken at about 3.00am to an horrendous storm with golf ball size hailstones raining down at a torrential rate. The floor of the van was soon under centimetres of water that had come in through the roof lights but worse still the awning canvas had collapsed from the weight of about 3 inches of hailstones collecting in the middle, the weight of which had in turn snapped one of the awning legs.
It took what seemed like ages to shut the windows and dry the floor to the sound of overhead lightning accompanied by loud thunder and what sounded like somebody throwing rocks on the van roof. Just getting out of the van door soaked us to the skin so having decided that awning was a write off we did what we could to stop it tearing off the side of the van and went back inside to watch mother nature at her best (or worst, depending on how you look at it).
The new awning now gets taken in every night regardless of how much we’ve had to drink or how tired we are. A lesson learned.
One of our previous vans suffered the same in France. Torrential rain then hailstones. The awning flooded a bit. It was very noisy in the van.A few dings on the roof.
The car was OK.
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
When we lived in SW France we had those storms once or twice every year, in one our nearest neighbour has 12 windows broken and in a local field a cow was killed. We always managed to get our car in the barn in time but you could always see the little dents on the cars that were caught out in it.
Quote: Originally posted by badger54 on 10/9/2022
When we lived in SW France we had those storms once or twice every year, in one our nearest neighbour has 12 windows broken and in a local field a cow was killed. We always managed to get our car in the barn in time but you could always see the little dents on the cars that were caught out in it.
One thing decades of visiting France has taught me, well certainly for the northern part I know best, is that the forecasts are about as variable/reliable as the UK forecasts, but the weather is often far more extreme, the French do thunderstorms the like of which I've never seen in UK, the USA is the only other place I've experienced storms like it!
As a regular tent camper in the rather flat landscape of the Sarthe region, you see these monsters rolling in towards you for miles and countless lightning strikes as they get nearer, very unnerving, and we've felt the need to retreat to the car for protection from the lightning as the tent felt 'a tad' too vulnerable, with a industrial sized steel poled marquee and a large steel poled tent, we were one of the more likely 'tall targets' in the field full of little tents! Certainly had torrential rain as well, but thankfully no golf ball hail so far, but have been belted with some serious sleet!
We were tent camping in Ranville, near Caen when storm Miguel hit in June 2019, now a camp site (des Capucines) full of big trees in a storm is a VERY mixed blessing, no doubt we still have a tent because of the shelter the trees provided, it got well battered and the heavy steel poles were never quite the same after, but it survived, BUT you never took your eyes off the nearby big trees in case one showed signs of shedding boughs or toppling over entirely! As this was the first of a two location stay, we NEEDED the tent to survive if the second and longer of the two stays which we'd invested a lot on money into was going to happen!
Was staying in the caravan once near the Peak District on a site on the top of a deep gorge, when a real squall came channelling through the valley, despite the caravan being correctly pitched with all steadies firmly down on the hard standing, it rocked around enough to make my tea slop around in the cup! I've experience less movement on a ship in a storm! Did get me wondering just what does it take to bowl a largish caravan over! The Poplar trees bounding the site bent to some alarming curvatures, but minus quite a few leaves did survive too! One of the few occasions when I'd decided it was generally too windy to put the awning up, very grateful I didn't, think the squall would have wrecked it in seconds.
Great respect for the powers of nature. Glad you escaped without serious damage bofs.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Thunderstorm with hailstones
via mobile 06/9/2022 at 1:54pm
