Newchurch in May — is this shape of things to come?

The village was hit by a freak hailstorm which turned a large chunk of the Newchurch area wintry white just after noon.

The snowy-looking scene is unlike anything seen in May before.

As you can see from some of the pictures, posted on the Isle of Wight Met Service's Facebook page, it also made the roads in and out of Newchurch hazardous, with one commenting it was like a skating rink.

There was localised hail and sleet in parts of the Isle of Wight yesterday (Friday), with Godshill one of the worst hit areas.

But today's hailstorm was at another level. Many may ask if this is the shape of things to come with the British weather.

The roads in and out of Newchurch were "like a skating rink" for a while.

Jamie Russell, of the Isle of Wight Met Service, was stunned by what he saw.

"It was amazing. I couldn't believe it," he said.

"I was on the southern side of a big rapeseed field near Shanklin when I noticed something slightly unusual happening in the general direction of Newchurch and headed over there.

Most of Newchurch was hit by a freak hailstorm, with areas beside it, as illustrated in this picture, untouched by it.

"It was a small, intense pocket of hail — covering about a quarter of a mile square — which absolutely came down ridiculously heavily.

"In all, the hail probably came down for about half an hour — but intensely for around 15 minutes. 

This is the wintry scene outside Newchurch Primary School this afternoon (Saturday).

"It was a type of material called soft hail, or convective sleet, which is hail, within rain not cold enough to freeze

"It happened at the strongest part of an updraft. The Island heated up and drew in air from the south-east, which met with cool Arctic air from the north and that of massive showers on the mainland dying out.

"These conditions produce really intense showers."

Jamie said there had also been smaller pockets of similar weather in the West Wight, which were not as intense as those in Newchurch today.