A storm as sudden as it was violent hit the town of Brugeron in Puy-de-Dôme on Friday June 28.
The sky was gray, dark and the atmosphere heavy this Friday, June 28 in Puy-de-Dôme. A little before 6 p.m., Johan and Ludivine Drouet leave Brugeron to attend a collection of classic cars in Saint-Pierre-la-Bourlhonne. Arriving in the middle of the path, “we saw huge hailstones crashing onto the road,” says Johan.
Impressive noise
Surprised, the couple turned around. A hailstone had time to explode on the body of the car before they could get it to safety.
The storm must have lasted about twenty minutes. The noise was impressive, there were lots of impacts. It felt like a tile was breaking with every hit.
Luckily, the century-old tiles held up well. Five had to be replaced. “Our neighbour had a glass roof with reinforced glass. There are places where the hail managed to perforate the metal,” Johan says in surprise.
Rain and squall
Suddenly, the rain joined in the dance, accompanied by a “huge squall”. In the couple’s garden, the young trees were lying down. At his neighbor’s, the trunk of a plum tree was no longer able to resist. “We can only endure,” sighs Johan. “We have solar thermal panels; five tubes were destroyed. The hailstones fell in the yard. There were huge chunks of ice left, it was surreal.”
Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal, Allier… Météo France places 34 departments on orange alert for “storms”
1985
Johan and Ludivine have lived in Brugeron for ten years. They had only seen fine hail falling, never such hailstones of six centimeters in diameter. According to their neighbors, we have to go back to 1985 to remember such a meteorological event.
This packaging company from Puy-de-Dôme impacted by a hailstorm
Ironically, “we received an alert from our insurance just before the impact. The message informed us of a hail alert, be careful”, concludes Johan.
On Saturday June 29, 34 departments were placed on orange alert for “storms” by Météo France, including Puy-de-Dôme.
Gaëlle Chazal
