“A MASS of white” was left behind across areas of central Victoria after Friday’s stormy weather. Properties on McKenzies Hill at Castlemaine were hit by a strong downpour of rain and hail early Friday night, leaving a rare snow-like landscape across the area. “The whole hill was just a mass of white,” McKenzies Hill resident Yvonne Welch said.“It was just everywhere, in our backyard, our front yard, in the trampoline, on the slide. We’ve got pictures of our son digging in it, it was so thick.”Mrs Welch and her family took a light approach to the fields of white by making a “hail man”, complete with cherry tomatoes for eyes and a carrot for a nose.“It’s summer time, we should be getting 40-degree days and bushfires, not putting together hailmen,” she said.“While we were having fun I am sure there were some people who have sustained some hail damage.”The Welchs' property did not escape the damage, with their pool enclosure – a large aluminium structure with fly wire to keep leaves and insects out of their pool – virtually “squashed” by the hail.“I guess the strength of the hail that came down so fast and the weight of the hail lying on it was the cause of it,” Mrs Welch said. Strathfieldsaye resident Leone Patterson was among those who experienced the selectiveness of Friday’s hailstorm.Her family’s Emu Creek Road property was hit by the hail but a neighbour about four kilometres away on Hargreaves Road saw no hail. Mrs Patterson said the hail came down hard and fast for a good few minutes around 5.30pm. “It was just so amazing to see how it came down,” she said. “We could see it was just black and then it pelted down, it started with small hail at first then it became quite intense.” The hail blocked the house’s water spouts causing water to leak inside and forcing the family to pull down one of the spouts to allow water to flow. “After the storm it took quite a while to melt... everything was covered in white,” Mrs Patterson said.A spokesperson for the State Emergency Service said the north west region was “relatively quiet” with only 15 requests for help.