On the last day of June, residents in various pockets of Guadalajara, Mexico woke up to find themselves surrounded by more than 3 ft (1 meter) of hail. As city officials scrambled to clean up the mess, the freak hailstorm wreaked havoc on buildings and roads, snarling the city in traffic.

 

 

 

“Hail more than a meter high, and then we wonder if climate change exists.” – Enrique Alfaro Ramirez, Governor of Jalisco, of which Guadalajara is the capital

 

 

 

“Low pressure extending south from the US and Mexico border had been forecast to contribute to developing storms along the boundary separating different air masses. Once these storms developed, all the ingredients came together for there to be this strange hailstorm over Guadalajara.” – CNN Meteorologist Michael Guy

 

 

 

In the days leading up to the freak storm, temperatures had averaged nearly 32°C/90°F. Even the day after the storm, temperatures were over 27°C/80°F. This melting created severe flooding in some areas and clogged drainage systems.

Thankfully nobody was hurt and order was eventually restored to Mexico’s second largest city.

 

 

 

Sources

– Guadalajara, Mexico, covered in ice after a freakish summer hailstorm
– Freak Summer Hailstorm Hits Mexico’s Guadalajara
– Freak hailstorm buries part of western Mexico in ice
– Freak summer hailstorm buries cars in Mexico’s Guadalajara
– Enrique Alfaro on Twitter