Freak hailstorm engulfs trucks in Mexican city June 30, 2019
Drifts of hail from a freak storm partially buried tractor-trailers and cars in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, bringing families out on to the streets to play in ice piled high despite the summer heat.
The storm on Sunday blanketed parts of Mexico’s second largest city in white. Soldiers and police who took to the streets to help the clear-up operations slid and slipped knee deep into the drifts.
Jorge David Arias, who was visiting family, said he and his relatives had never seen a storm like it.
Arias shot photos showing cars pushed against trees by the force of the ice.
Guadalajara, in western Mexico, usually sees average temperatures in June of around 31 Celsius (88 Fahrenheit).
Freak Summer Hail Storm Blankets Mexico's Guadalajara
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Vehicles were buried in hail on Sunday (June 30) in eastern Guadalajara in Mexico's Jalisco state. The accumulation of hail buried vehicles and damaged homes.
People in Guadalajara, Mexico, woke up on Sunday to a thick blanket of ice over areas of their city, after a freak hail storm that damaged houses and left cars partially buried.
This is particularly strange because it's the middle of summer. In the past month, temperatures most days have hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit or over.
The Mexican army and local authorities have been deployed to use heavy machinery to dig out the city of nearly 1.5 million people that is the capital of Jalisco state.
"Hail more than a meter high and then we wonder if climate change exists," Jalisco Gov. Enrique Alfaro Ramírez
wrote on Twitter. As of Sunday afternoon, no injuries had been reported, he said, adding that authorities were working to help citizens whose homes were damaged.
The blanket of hail made it difficult to get around the Mexican city of Guadalajara on Sunday.
"This is a natural phenomenon that we haven't seen before," the governor said
in a video posted to Facebook. As he gestured to the blanketed street, he added: "The hail looks like snowfall."
In the Rancho Blanco area of the city, which was particularly hard-hit, some 30 vehicles and 60 homes were damaged, Jalisco Civil Protection officials
said on Facebook.
It's worth noting that
the actual hailstones that hit Guadalajara were rather small — even smaller than a marble,
according to the BBC — which might have limited some of the damage.
June is typically one of the hottest months of the year in Guadalajara. Ulises Ruiz/AFP/Getty Images
Hail forms when "thunderstorm updrafts are strong enough to carry water droplets well above the freezing level,"
according to NASA. These droplets freeze into hailstones that fall to earth.
A woman and a child walk on hail in eastern Guadalajara on Sunday. Ulises Ruiz/AFP/Getty Images
A CNN meteorologist said a low pressure zone around the U.S.-Mexico border contributed to storm strengthening in the area. "This was a case where atmospheric and topographic ingredients came into play to cause a freakish hail storm," Michael Guy said.
As crews work to clear away the ice, they may get a hand from the weather. Guadalajara is expected to see significant melting on Monday, with likely thunderstorms and temperatures forecast to reach 81 degrees Fahrenheit.
Freak hail storm strikes Mexican city of Guadalajara (Video)
While seasonal hail storms do occur, there is no record of anything so heavy.
In a rare, massive hailstorm, six suburbs in Guadalajara, Mexico, were carpeted in thick snow on June 30, 2019. The ice rose up to five feet (1.5 meters) in some places, nearly burying vehicles on the roads.
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Hailstorms July 1st in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and Italy.
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