Driving down the main 3 lane highway down from the hills to La Canada, Marbella, the other morning, I heard a bang.

I assume that a stone had hit the windscreen, I slowed but couldn’t see any damage.  Then the plastic window surround on the window beside me exploded - there is a lot of hunting up here, someone must be shooting at the car - I slowed down a lot more.  Just as well.

A sheet of hail dropped down, the stones got bigger and bigger until some stones were fist sized.  I am not normally frightened by weather, but this time was different.  Not the usual rattle of hailstones, this time every bang was like a hammer blow on the car - and on the windscreen.  You can tell it was bad, even the Spanish drivers had stopped.  It wasn’t just ordinary hail, but fist sized blocks of ice dropping out of the sky at full speed.

It seemed to go on for ages.  I was convinced that something was going to come through the windscreen.  I know that they are strengthened, but this was like stones hitting the car.  Parked in the middle of the road, flashers on, no-one else around me able to move either, I slipped between the front seats and moved to the middle of the back seat - just to be on the safe side.  One hit the screen, I could see cracks all across the windscreen, but then the cracks slid down the windscreen, and I realised that the hailstone had exploded across the windscreen, but the windscreen held.

Eventually, it died down, and turned into a torrent of rain - like being in a shower.  I crept back into the drivers seat, and slowly edged my way down the road.

When I finally got out of the car, I could see at least 2 dozen dents on the bonnet, boot, and roof, which looked as though the car had been hit by a hammer.  The car is very old, so it is going to have to live with it’s injuries. But they are quite impressive.

One of my fellow workers also had the same damage to his car, but he lost a windscreen.  Luckily for him, it was a hire car.

I know that there were injuries, and hundreds of cars damaged.  I am convinced that anyone caught in the open in the area where I was would have been killed, you can’t take that kind of damage to your head and get away with it.

And some people come here for the weather!!