MANILA, Philippines— In a rare occasion during dry season or what Filipinos call “summer,” residents of a village in Benguet witnessed a hailstorm on Saturday afternoon.
The hailstorm reportedly occurred for over an hour leaving pebbles of ice the size of corn kernels.
Winston Lucando, weather observer at the Baguio synoptic station, confirmed that the hailstorm occurred in Atok, Benguet.
Lucando said the hailstorm was a rare occurrence but highly likely to happen during summer because of the hot temperature.
"Gawa nung itong mainit, summer na tayo. Ngayon ang evaporation sa may Atok, may namuong cumulonimbus sa atmosphere dahil sa intense ng lamig na-freeze yung cumulonimbus, (It's because of the hot temperature. Now due to evaporation, a cumulonimbus cloud was formed in the atmosphere in Atok. Then, because of the intense cold in that area, the cumulonimbus froze producing hail)," Lucano told Philstar.com in a phone interview.
"It's uncommon. It just so happened that the formation of the cumulonimbus cloud was in Atok," he added in Filipino.
Facebook user Stefanie Cornel Haight captured the actual hailstorm in Sayangan Paoay, Atok and shared photos and a video of it and its aftermath in a social media post.
The hailstorm covered some of the areas with pebble-shaped ice, which Haight likened to crushed ice for halo-halo.
— with Rosette Adel and Mikas Matsuzawa