Snow in Sydney, Australia? First time in 172 years?

 It was initially hailed as Sydney’s first snowfall in 172 years, but it turned out yesterday’s severe weather was only hail.

Australian locals still managed to go sledding, throw some snowballs and make a snowman (or in this case, hailballs and hailman) today.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology says what actually fell was ’soft hail’ and that conditions were not quite cold enough to produce snow.

The last time Sydney supposedly had a snowfall was 1836 although some scientists believe officials back then just mistook soft hail for snow.

Whatever it was, residents in the Lindfield neighbourhood on Sydney’s north shore enjoyed a bit of winter fun. —–RTE, Ireland

Oh… only “hail” in the sub tropics. Ok,  we’ll go back to doing what we were doing.  I bet if Denver or Calgary didn’t have snow in say December/January in the first time in 172 years this would be a MAJOR news item. I think everyone in Australia now should be forced to buy Hummers to combat this global cooling problem.

Also, in my experience growing up in Canuckastan you CAN’T make snowmen or snowballs out of hail.  What they probably saw (based on the pictures I’ve seen) in Sydney was graupel which, I think, is more snow than hail.  Help me out here.