The hail spilled out of a towering anvil-topped cumulus cloud that built up over the north-west Mallee after 5pm, leaving a layer of slippery ice across the road, between 2cm and 5cm thick.

Motorists travelling up the Calder Highway from Ouyen rang Red Cliffs police to warn of the hazardous conditions.

Senior Constable Greg Wiffen, of Red Cliffs Police, who arrived at the location with Senior Constable Ben Sleep about half an hour after the storm went through, praised motorists for taking care and slowing down in the hazardous conditions.

“All we could do was put on our warning lights to alert motorists to slow down until council arrived to put out hazard-warning signs around 6.15pm,” he said.

“But there were no accidents - everyone slowed down and put on their lights. The worst of the hailstorm occurred during daylight, and nobody came to grief.

He said semi-trailers soon created tracks through the fall, and cars were able to avoid the slippery conditions by driving in the ice-free wheel tracks.

Senior Constable Wiffen said the heaviest hail fell in a band between 1km and 9km south of Hattah.

“We also drove through a patch of smaller hail about 16km south of Boonoonar Road, that lasted for about 2.5km,” he said.

At 6pm, Ouyen Police also sent a divisional van north to warn motorists.

The Parmenter family, of Sarnia Avenue, Mildura, was driving from Ouyen to Mildura, and reached Hattah just after the storm had been through and took photographs before the police arrived.

For more of this story, purchase your copy of Monday’s Sunraysia Daily 8/6/2009.