01/02/2013
This is Andhra Pradesh not Himachal Pradesh.
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Several villages in three mandals of Rangareddy in Andhra Pradesh were completely transformed on Wednesday as ice covered the entire area after a violent bout of hailstorm. It was an once-in-a-lifetime experience for people living in seven villages in Chevella, Moinabad and Shankarpally as hailstones, some as large as boulders, started falling from the sky on Tuesday night.
Unconfirmed reports suggested that about nine people had died and many had been injured in the hailstorm. There were also heavy losses to livestock as huge pieces of ice came crashing through flimsy roofs.
On Wednesday morning, the entire area resembled a valley in Kashmir in midwinter. Roads and fields were completely covered with small pieces of hail while extremely large ones, never witnessed before, were seen scattered all over.
Locals said that the hailstorm came along with violent lightning and thunder at around 8.30 pm in the evening but only lasted for around 15 minutes.
J. Veeresham, a farmer in Kummera in Chevella mandal said, “There was light rainfall and severe hailstorm and it lasted only for 15 minutes. The ice was one-foot thick everywhere.
Nothing was cleared even by morning and the ice has not melted even now. Roofs were broken, houses damaged and there was lot of damage to property.” Pandu, another villager, added, “It was night, so we were safe but if it was in the morning, we would all have been dead. All the goats are dead and there is so much loss.” Vast areas of crops were also battered with snow carpeting huge tracts of fields.
A thick fog enveloped the whole area in the morning and visibility was almost negligible. Even the trees were leafless as the hailstorm had stripped them bare.
What's the difference between hail & snow?
Experts say that snow is made up of one or more tiny ice crystals that come together to form the intricate and unique shapes of a snowflake. Whereas hail is a frozen raindrop and is generally a lot bigger than a pure crystal of ice. It is formed only during thunderstorms. Snow can also form in a thunderstorm but it depends on the surface temperature as well, say experts.
Dr K. Sitarama, director, Meteorological Centre, Hyderabad, explained, “The air temperature has to be zero, only then can snow be precipitated. It mainly depends on the processes in the cloud and temperature.“ Following a violent bout of hailstorm, sources said it took three to four people to remove each of the big hailstones off the roads in Kummera in Chevella mandal.
District collector A. Vani Prasad informed in a release that compensation would be given if there were any deaths due to the hailstorm.
Scientists said that the hailstorm that struck Chevella in Rangareddy was an extremely rare atmospheric event, one which had never been recorded in the area.
According to scientists, the hailstorm was caused by a severe thunderstorm where the clouds had risen above the height of 10 to 12 km. They said that global warming could also be a contributing factor to this extremely rare phenomenon.
Dr K. Sitarama, director, Meteorological Centre Hyderabad, said, “The hailstorm was caused by an intense thunderstorm. Such occurances are highly localised and restricted to a small area. If the Nimbus cloud, where the precipitation occurs, is at a height of more than 10 km, then the thunderstorm is severe.”
O.S.R. Bhanu Kumar, Professor of Meteorology, Andhra University, said, “The temperature in the Nimbus clouds dips to nearly -50°C to -70°C. The height of the top of the cloud is the deciding factor.” Experts said tornadoes could also be possible during this time.
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