During the recent thunder showers and low pressure systems experienced in the Sultanate of Oman, hail stones have been an important feature more than ever before as seen in Al Hamra and other wilayats.
Meteorologist, Jaffer bin Hamad al Busaidy, of Civil Aviation Authority, said the current depression will bring in rain storms, strong winds and hailstones.
Replying to the question from Observer on how and why hailstones occur, “The hailstones occur when droplets inside the cloud go through a dry layer between the cloud and the earth during the stage it freezes and falls down to the land as hail stone. The contributing factors could be dry layers or temperature drop at the top of the cloud as it is drastic.”
“It is not the place — land, mountain, sea, or the desert. It is actually the convective clouds or supercell clouds that determine whether we will have a hail storm.
So are we seeing hailstorms more frequently now?
“Yes, this happens when we have more heat in the period between morning and midday and when we have huge convective clouds as experienced in March, April and before arrival of winter and during summer,” he pointed out.
Wind driven hail storms can particularly be damaging on property, especially vehicles. It can even cause severe injury to people and animals. During a hail storm it is best to stay at home and if one is on the road, it has been advised to slow down or stop, because the roads may become slippery and difficult to control.
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