What's been described as a "mongrel" year weather-wise in Mid-Canterbury has been topped off by a freak hailstorm in a small town.

The supercell storm yesterday afternoon has left crops ruined and widespread damage to homes and roads.

The storm lasted around 40 minutes and only made a direct hit on Mayfield, 30 kilometres from Ashburton, where locals now face a big clean-up.

The storm could not have come at a worse time for Mayfield farmers, many of whom are still in clean-up mode and recovering from the wind storms in September.

Gale force winds of 150 kilometres per hour whipped through Canterbury causing widespread damage during the storm which swept up the country in the second week of September.

And for the Mayfield crop farmers who did manage to save plantations then, many of the plantations now are left in ruin and virtually worthless.

"Yeah it's a rough year. We've had a couple of good years. This isn't going to be one of them," crop farmer Rab McDowell told.

He said his carrot plants' stalks all had a flowerhead on them which would have set seed. But the flowerheads had all gone in the hailstorm.

Mr McDowell had partial insurance. He is now waiting on assessors to see if any of the $100,000 he would have made from his crops can be salvaged.

Source - http://tvnz.co.nz/