Guadalajara, a city in Mexico, had been enjoying a typical hot summer until the events of this past weekend.
Sunday morning, residents of the city woke up to more than 3 feet of ice — the results of a hailstorm.
Enrique Alfaro Ramirez, the governor of Jalisco, a state in Mexico in which Guadalajara is the capital, says he’s never witnessed a hailstorm like this.
He took the matter to Twitter, saying “hail more than a meter high, and then we wonder if climate change exists.”
The roads are being cleaned in a collaborative effort with the government of Jalisco, the Mexican Army and Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque authorities.
CNN Meteorologist, Michael Guy, says the hail storm happened because the low pressure extending south from the U.S. and Mexico borders were forecasted 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,” he added.
This resulted in more than 3 feet of hail in some areas across Guadalajara.
The city of Guadalajara is almost 5,000 feet above sea level and overall, has a mild climate.
June through September are considered to be rainy months and because of the high elevation, severe rain isn’t unusual.
“However, this was a case where atmospheric and topographic ingredients came into play to cause a freakish hail storm,” says Guy.
Governor Ramirez has said on Sunday afternoon that there has not been any reported injuries or fatalities.