Moree Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) officer Michael Glasson said he’d been told by BoM NSW regional director Barry Hanstrum that it was “one of the worst severe storms ever seen in NSW ... in terms of large hail”.

Hail bigger than cricket balls wreaked havoc on summer crops, particularly cotton, in the final stages of development across the North West.

But reports 30 per cent of the cotton and dryland crops had been destroyed in the lower Namoi were dismissed by Gwydir Valley Cotton Growers’ Association president Sean Boland as “crazy talk”.

Cotton Seed Distributors extension and development agronomist Rob Eveleigh, at Wee Waa, estimated the damage for farmers at $6 million around the Narrabri area alone.

“There are 500-600 hectares of cotton with varying degrees of damage within 20km of Narrabri,” Mr Eveleigh said. 

He’d heard reports of “softball-sized hail” from several farmers who said the stones had been equal in size to the largest hail ever recorded in the Narrabri district – 7.5cm in diameter.

The hail also killed at least two horses and many birds near Narrabri, destroyed farmhouse roofs, sheds, chaser bins, augers and cars, and blew over centre-pivot irrigation equipment as wind gusts reached 76km/h.

Moree experienced wind gusts of up to 94km/h.

Hail also smashed cotton crops 35km east of Moree – and, although there was no hail in the town itself, there were callouts to three houses there, SES Namoi region controller Andrew Galvin said. 

At least six houses at Bingara were also smashed by hail, with two requiring SES assistance.