It may have only lasted a few minutes, but the skies lit up over Horsham on Saturday.

What started as a few faint thunderclaps, quickly escalated into pouring rain, hammering on the roofs of houses across the city.

And then, what was that? Was it really heavy rain or was it something slightly more serious? A quick glance outside confirmed that, yes, it was indeed hailing.

The hail smashed down for about 30 seconds leaving handfuls of 20-cent sized balls of ice on lawns, roads and footpaths.

While the hailstones survived for up to half an hour before melting, the storm left little else behind. Horsham received just over 4mm of rain in the downpour.

Other locations fared slightly better with Navarre receiving 19mm, Hopetoun 12mm, Dimboola 7.8mm and Stawell 11mm.