Eastern Australia has been battered this week by a series of severe thunderstorms that have unleashed destructive forces across the region.

These storms have generated heavy rain, powerful winds, flash flooding, and hailstones of alarming size.

The storms, marked by wind gusts exceeding 100 mph (160 km/h), have severely disrupted operations at Sydney's major airport and wreaked havoc in the surrounding areas.

The intense winds have damaged buildings, tearing roofs off and leading to widespread chaos.

Tragically, in New South Wales, an 80-year-old man lost his life when a tree fell onto his car, with several other injuries also reported across the region.

Powerful lightning strikes associated with these storms resulted in significant power outages, affecting over 200,000 homes.

Furthermore, rail services experienced suspensions, highlighting the broader impact of this weather on transportation.

The size of the hailstones has been particularly remarkable.

While much of eastern Australia reported hail measuring up to 4 cm in diameter, certain areas, such as Southern Downs and Queensland, experienced hailstones as large as 10 cm – surpassing a tennis ball in size.

Meteorologists have identified these thunderstorms as among the most hazardous of the current Australian summer season.

The volatile weather system was triggered by cold air masses interacting with existing weather patterns, specifically a cold front and a low-pressure trough, creating instability in the atmosphere.

This atmospheric disturbance formed a squall line—a vast, continuous line of thunderstorms that stretched across hundreds of kilometers, notorious for delivering intense rainfall and robust winds.

The formation of supercells—rare, extremely intense thunderstorms characterized by deep, rotating updrafts—has been central to the significant hail and storm activity.

These supercells repeatedly lift hailstones into freezing layers of the atmosphere, allowing them to accrue layers of ice and grow dramatically in size.

While eastern Australia faced these intense weather challenges, weather disruptions were also observed globally.

India's capital, New Delhi, has been blanketed in dense fog, a common seasonal phenomenon exacerbated by the region's flat geography.

This fog severely impacted air quality and visibility, causing transport disruptions with numerous flight delays and train cancellations.

Recent rainfall lent some relief by clearing the fog, although this has brought a chillier climate, reflecting the ongoing complexities of weather patterns worldwide.