Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/1999 Sydney hailstorm
1999 Sydney hailstorm[edit]
The 1999 Sydney hailstorm was the costliest natural disaster in Australian history in terms of insured damage. The storm developed south of Sydney, New South Wales, on the afternoon of 14 April 1999 and struck the city's eastern suburbs, including the central business district, later that evening. It dropped an estimated 500,000 tonnes of hailstones on Sydney and its suburbs. The insured damage bill was over A$1.7 billion, with the total bill (including uninsured damage) estimated to be around $2.3 billion. Lightning claimed one life, and the storm caused approximately 50 injuries. The storm was classified as a supercell following further analysis of its erratic nature and extreme attributes. The time of year and general conditions in the region were not seen as conducive for an extreme storm cell to form, and the Bureau of Meteorology was repeatedly surprised by its changes in direction, its duration, and the severity of the hail. (Full article...)
- Most recent similar article(s): Hurricane Erika (4 December 2023, 132 days ago), Hurricane Willa (20 October 2023, 177 days ago)
- Main editors: Daniel
- Promoted: 26 November 2007
- Reasons for nomination: Proposing as the 25th anniversary of the event. Note that this has previously been featured as TFA on April 14, way back in 2008 (16 years ago!).
- Support as nominator. Daniel (talk) 22:39, 11 February 2024 (UTC)