As the weather warms up for the summer months in Australia, so too does the risk of summer storms. Unfortunately for car lovers, those storms can occasionally contain hail.
Hail storms can result in damage to property, including cars. If big enough, hail will leave a permanent ‘welt’ mark in your car’s paintwork, or cause cracks and breakages to your vehicle’s windscreen, side and rear windows.
Thousands of Australian vehicles are damaged by hail annually, running into hundreds of millions of dollars in repair bills. Hail damage can vary depending on the size of stone: anything from a small dent that can be removed professionally by a paintless dent removal expert, through to your vehicle being written-off by the insurer.
Depending on circumstances, there are things you can do to prevent hail damage.
Hail are small pieces of ice created by a combination of warm surface temperatures, strong winds and cool air in the upper atmosphere. Water vapour condenses into tiny water droplets, cooling and freezing as it rises inside a thunderstorm updraft; the longer the droplets stay within the updraft, the bigger the hail becomes.