The power has just come back on after being off for several hours. A clear day, temperature up to 38° C (just over 100 F), humid; & then, just after 5 p.m., a small weather cell came up from the south that turned into a mini cyclone, 100kph winds, rain sweeping in. Extremely localised. But a 30 metre high tree was uprooted on our bottom street frontage, smashing the neighbour's fence. A tree fell across our back driveway. Branches came off or broke halfway off the large tree in the backyard and filled the pool. Other branches were blown onto the roof falling across the power lines which were also threatened by more broken branches hanging from the large tree in the front. Fortunately no damage to the house. I rang the local power company & the State Emergency Services & both were round within the hour, orange hazard lights flashing from trucks in the dusk, the older workers complaining about being dragged away from watching the cricket or the tennis on tv, the younger ones having a ball cutting up branches with chainsaws & saws on telescopic poles.

& so, tomorrow, waiting for the Council to come & see what part of the mess is theirs. The tree at the back is definitely their responsibility & possibly some of the ones at the front. Insurance assessors. & no doubt the difficult task of finding a tree-lopper to come & cut the broken branches away cleanly &, hopefully, chip the broken branches & get rid of the mess.