ALTHOUGH Salmon Gums residents may be experiencing a premature white Christmas after a thunderstorm Wednesday afternoon, farmers and community members are less than impressed with the weather, which has left many crops completely destroyed.

What was already proving to be a difficult harvest has now been worsened, after Salmon Gums measured 18.4 millimetres of rain from 1pm Wednesday afternoon, with a thunderstorm causing wind-gusts of up to 56 kilometres an hour, and hail that was described as “inches thick.”

Farmers Sam Guest and Tanya Paterson said their farm had taken a very hard hit.

“We’re located about 19 kilometres north of Salmon Gums, and our farm really copped the brunt of it. We have no gardens, no trees, no crops. Everything is gone. It’s devastating. There is still inches of ice there this morning,” Ms Paterson said.

While Ms Paterson said her house stood up to the storm, others weren’t so lucky.

“Our neighbours’ house – the ceilings are falling in and water is leaking in everywhere,” Ms Paterson said.

Norseman State Emergency Services (SES) volunteers attended Salmon Gums shortly after 1pm, responding to a call that a tree had fallen across the road, 30 kilometres north of Salmon Gums.

Norseman SES local manager, Bevan Bailye, said the crew immediately closed the road, and said the scene on arrival looked like Christmas.

“The whole landscape was just white,” he said.

Mr Bailye said as the hail started melting, it has flooded the Esperance-Coolgardie Highway, causing it to also be closed.

“As I’m speaking to you now (Thursday morning), Main Roads engineers are going to assess the road to see if it can be reopened.”

Mr Bailye said he had heard of eight crops damaged in the storm, as well as some structural damage to houses.

“Most of it was caused by the hail blocking gutters, causing the water to go back through the roof.”