A sample of the hail which hit Ballarat this afternoon.
A MASSIVE hail storm has hit Ballarat, causing flash flooding and havoc on city streets.Hail the size of golf balls hit about 3.25pm and early reports of flooding in central Ballarat, including in Bridge Mall are filtering through.Several businesses in the mall were inundated, while a bottle shop in Wendouree had its roof partially cave in due to hail.A SES spokeswoman said they had 60 calls of assistance from across the Ballarat area."Ballarat unit of 25 volunteers is responding to the calls," she said. The calls, the spokeswoman said were fairly even spread across the town but there were more reports of flash flooding from Wendouree and Soldiers Hill."A bottle shop in Wendouree has had a partial roof collapse," she said. "But mostly there has been reports of minor damage to private properties like water coming through the light fittings and roofs and coming through the homes." Several shops in CBD were also reported to have shut down for the day due to flash flooding. Ballarat resident and first time home owner Jane (last name withheld) said her garage and house were flooded with water."We had 8 inches of water in the garage," Jane said."The carpet in the bedrooms is completely wet."Remarkably, the Bureau of Meteorology reported just 4.4mm of rain between 3pm and 4pm at Ballarat Aerodrome.It has since updated the figure saying Ballarat has received 15.6mm since 9am.Reports from readers of The Courier put the total at more than 20mm this afternoon.Do you have pictures - send them to cos@thecourier.com.auMore to come.