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Mexico Hail: Ice 1.5m thick Carpets Guadalajara

posted by martyb on Monday July 01 2019, @04:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the How-to-keep-a-cool-head-in-summer dept.

SemperOSS writes:

Freak flooding in Guadalajara after a massive hail storm. Pictures on BBC:

Six suburbs in the Mexican city of Guadalajara were carpeted in a thick layer of ice after a heavy hailstorm. The ice was up to 1.5m (5ft) thick in places, half-burying vehicles.

[...] Hailstorms form when warm, moist air from the surface rises upwards forming showers and storms. Temperatures higher up, even in summer, can get well below 0C and so ice crystals form along with something called "supercooled water" which then grows into pellets of ice.

In severe thunderstorms, air can rise rapidly and is able to hold up these hailstones and allow them to expand in size. Eventually they get too heavy and fall to the ground.

In warmer parts of the year, such as in Guadalajara which has maximum temperatures of around 31-32C [(87-90 °F)] in June, more moisture is available, contributing to the formation of hailstorms.

Temperatures this month have been higher than normal with Torreon, to the north of Guadalajara, reaching highs of 37C [(99 °F)].

Hm, I wonder if somebody is going to mention anthropogenic warming with this?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @12:30AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @12:30AM (#862222)

    I'm having trouble imagining an ice-damn that's not a pointless wall on the front edge of a glacier ... I don't see one busting and the ice going anywhere.

    Luckily TFA had this to say:

    According to BBC Weather, the hail probably melted on contact due to the high temperatures forming a layer of water upon which more hail could land and float.

    This combination of water and hail likely moved down slope, with obstacles such as buildings blocking the flow and allowing more ice to accumulate on top.

  • (Score: 2) by Spamalope on Tuesday July 02 2019, @12:49AM

    by Spamalope (5233) on Tuesday July 02 2019, @12:49AM (#862230) Homepage

    That'd make it the ice version of a snow drift.

  • (Score: 2) by The Shire on Tuesday July 02 2019, @06:06AM

    by The Shire (5824) on Tuesday July 02 2019, @06:06AM (#862298)

    Just take a look at this aerial photo: https://i.imgur.com/pj2cUC6.jpg [imgur.com]

    You can't tell me that five feet of ice melted off all the roofs and the tops of all the vehicles but NOT from the road. And falling hail does not push cars around - that's the action of flowing mass of ice. It may well be the accumulated hail that fell across the mountainside and was funneled into a river that in turn flooded the town sort of like a lahar, but that's still nothing like the report they're pushing of "Five Feet of Hail falling out of the sky".