Freak hail storm in Mexico leaves 5 feet of ice on ground

A freak hail storm blanketed large parts of Guadalajara on Sunday, coating the southwestern Mexican city's roads with up to five feet of ice and snow.

The city had been experiencing temperatures of about 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit) in the days before the unexpected storm.

link

Absolutely bizarre. I've been in Texas in the scorching heat of the summer, and seeing hail blanket the ground (though only an inch or two) has such an eerie feel to it, but five feet is absolute insanity.





What a wild thing to witness. Just goes to show nature always has some surprises up it's sleeve.

Its the metric system.
It makes it look larger.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

I saw this earlier and all I can say is amazing ! Luckily the hail was of a small size or there would have been some serious causalities.. Thanks for posting with the pics

originally posted by: shooterbrody
Its the metric system.
It makes it look larger.

"Almost two meters of ice...."

Pffft, what's that in freedom units?

"five feet"

HOLY SH##!!!

originally posted by: 727Sky
a reply to: CriticalStinker

I this this earlier and all I can say is amazing ! Luckily the hail was of a small size or there would have been some serious causalities.. Thanks for posting with the pics

Yea, I saw a close up in a video, pea sized hail. We just had a storm with pea sized hail here in Virginia, usually not enough to dent cars. Though I imagine sheer weight messed some stuff up and collapsed some roofs that aren't meant to have snow weight.

Time to make mucho margaritas.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus


Time to make mucho margaritas.

The buzz will definitely help when the flooding starts

a reply to: CriticalStinker


Why is it so dirty?

How would hail lift those cars rear end so high?

In that 3rd picture... It looks like the cars are floating down a flooded river... With their heavy engine sinking down first...

Very strange indeed...

I would have expected to see the hail gradually surround the cars... Not lift them off the ground...

it almost looks like that red car is about to get pushed into that white van...

Strange indeed.

a reply to: ByteChanger

Why is it so dirty? How would hail lift those cars rear end so high?

I think a lot of plant matter from trees and other vegetation got decimated by the onslaught of hail.

My only guess on the weird positioning of cars is that maybe some of the hail melted, so the bottom was more a moving slurry at some point until everything settled. Just a guess though.

a reply to: ByteChanger

The day before storm was 88 degrees F, also other articles say it melted and caused flooding. So I am guessing that the warmth of the ground started melting and as well, the sun heating up the metal cars will cause the ice to melt quicker around them too.

The debris was probably whipped up by the winds. Other pics from CNN and bbc show the winds blowing it like drifting snow.

a reply to: ByteChanger

Why is it so dirty?

because mexico is filthy?

originally posted by: ByteChanger
a reply to: CriticalStinker


Why is it so dirty?

How would hail lift those cars rear end so high?

In that 3rd picture... It looks like the cars are floating down a flooded river... With their heavy engine sinking down first...

Very strange indeed...

I would have expected to see the hail gradually surround the cars... Not lift them off the ground...

it almost looks like that red car is about to get pushed into that white van...

Strange indeed.

Likely because the pictures do not represent what really happened. The rains and hail likely caused a flash flood which caused the cars to float and crash into one another. At the same time the hail was swept away by the flash flood also and deposited in low lying areas. The truck parking photo is probably a similar situation. I doubt it actually hailed "five feet" in any one given area.

Still, pretty impressive though!

Hail is basically just frozen rain, and if I'm not mistaken they are about equal in terms of water measurement.

Therefore, if "five feet" (60 INCHES) of rain fell in a short period of time (hours) it would be an epic event the likes of which no place on Earth has ever witnessed in recorded history. Hence, there's more to the pictures than meets the eye.

ETA - It's not uncommon to see snow fall in feet of depth over a short period of time, but snow is only a 1:12 ratio with water. In other words, it generally takes 12" of snow to equal 1" of rainfall. So, if it was just snow which fell in this storm, it would have only represented 5" of rainfall.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk

originally posted by: ByteChanger
a reply to: CriticalStinker


Why is it so dirty?

How would hail lift those cars rear end so high?

In that 3rd picture... It looks like the cars are floating down a flooded river... With their heavy engine sinking down first...

Very strange indeed...

I would have expected to see the hail gradually surround the cars... Not lift them off the ground...

it almost looks like that red car is about to get pushed into that white van...

Strange indeed.

Likely because the pictures do not represent what really happened. The rains and hail likely caused a flash flood which caused the cars to float and crash into one another. At the same time the hail was swept away by the flash flood also and deposited in low lying areas. The truck parking photo is probably a similar situation. I doubt it actually hailed "five feet" in any one given area.

Still, pretty impressive though!

Yep hard to believe but go to :39 seconds and watch big rigs trying to plow though the stuff. youtu.be...

a reply to: 727Sky



In the picture of the cop standing on top of the ice, look in the back at the street. It doesn't look as bad as what's being talked about. Something is wrong with the amounts given. It does look bad, but I think it looks bad because of flooding and not outright hail fall. It's possible that the hail all got pushed into the same area by the flooding, and that's why it looks so bad. I really doubt that 5 feet of hail fell of this town, but rather because of flooding it looks like 5 feet of hail was pushed into areas in the town.

a reply to: Guyfriday

I really doubt that 5 feet of hail fell of this town, but rather because of flooding it looks like 5 feet of hail was pushed into areas in the town.

I think you're probably right, as the aerial photo didn't appear to have too much accumulated on roof tops.

That said, this still must have been a record breaking anomaly. Having been through many hail storms in my life, some for extended duration, I've never seen accumulation over an inch or two. With rain we're talking melt times of about 5 minutes. The fact it was able to accumulate in such high amounts goes to show this one is something unlikely to be seen for some time.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Hail is basically just frozen rain, and if I'm not mistaken they are about equal in terms of water measurement.

Therefore, if "five feet" (60 INCHES) of rain fell in a short period of time (hours) it would be an epic event the likes of which no place on Earth has ever witnessed in recorded history. Hence, there's more to the pictures than meets the eye.

ETA - It's not uncommon to see snow fall in feet of depth over a short period of time, but snow is only a 1:12 ratio with water. In other words, it generally takes 12" of snow to equal 1" of rainfall. So, if it was just snow which fell in this storm, it would have only represented 5" of rainfall.

We had about 11 inches (rain) in just over an hour and it WAS isolated to fairly small area, 1/4 sq mile to 1/2 sq mil section between two hills/mountaint.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Same storm hit Guatemala. This morning's weather channel news did say flooding and the hail on top.
14 inches there 24 hrs

According to WMO figures, 359.9mm of rain fell in 24 hours to 04 June in Puerto Barrios, Izabal Department. Guatemala City recorded 179.9mm of rain in 24 hours to 07 June.

Southern Mexico and Guatemala hit by Tropical Storm Boris Tropical Storm Boris brought heavy rains, flash floods and landslides to large parts of the southern Mexican coast and northern Guatemala on Wednesday.

www.bbc.com...

Looks kind of like a white mud flow, doesn't it? An Ice lahar.
a reply to: ByteChanger

That's a Sh.. load of ice, what happened " bodybag ice cargo loss? "