RIVERLAND grape and citrus producers have seemingly escaped a surprise hailstorm last weekend with minimal damage to crops.
A brief storm last weekend also brought hail to parts of the region, with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) recording 4.0mm of rain in Renmark between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning
Sherwood Estates director Brett Proud said grape vines that were still in dormancy were unlikely to have suffered any damage.
“I haven’t heard of any damage at all,” Mr Proud said.
“It seemed fairly light and while it’s not going to do the vines any good, I don’t think it would have done them any harm yet.
“(The vines) are just starting to think about shooting now.”
A shock hailstorm that hit the Riverland last November caused an estimated $8 million damage for the local wine industry.
Citrus SA chair Mark Doecke said Riverland citrus growers had also experienced minimal negative effects.
“There was no damage that I’m aware of, but I was away from Wednesday until Saturday,” Mr Doecke said.
“I spoke to a guy while I was away and he said they had a bit of hail in Loxton, but no damage.”
A BoM spokesperson said lightning in the Riverland, combined with cold air masses, generated the hail conditions.
“There was a few lightning strikes in the Riverland, but it didn’t track across any parts of the state,” the spokesperson said.
“It was a really cold, relatively unstable air mass inducing shower activity and because it was so cold we did forecast hail.
“That started about 2pm on Friday afternoon and continued… it was a couple of random strikes here and there, and it certainly would have been cold enough to produce some hail.”
BoM advised Riverlanders warming temperatures meant further rainfall was unlikely in the region this week.
“We’ve got a couple of cold mornings and then daytime temperatures (warm up),” the spokesperson said.
“Then we sort of continue a bit of a warming trend as we head toward the weekend, then we get a cool change coming through again.”