The Negros Occidental Provincial Disaster Management Team confirmed yesterday reports that hail, or ice lumps the size of a small pea, fell Sunday in the Mansilingan area in Bacolod City.

Benjie Ballesteros of the PDMT said it was a natural phenomenon caused by the formation of cumulo-nimbus clouds and it was not the first time this happened in the province.

In 2006, ice lumps, bigger than what was reported Sunday, fell in Himamaylan, he said.

Ballesteros said that cumulo-nimbus clouds form when cold air rises very high into the sky and winds within the cloud push water droplets up to very cold parts of the atmosphere where they freeze.

When the ice drops come back down, they get another coating of water and are pushed back up to freeze again. Finally, they get too heavy to stay in the cloud and fall to the earth as hail stones, Ballesteros explained.

With the onset of summer and hot weather condition at noon and cold air at nighttime, people can expect to see hail instead of rainfall from time to time, he said.

While most people consider it as a phenomenon, Ballesteros said there is nothing to be alarmed about hail since it stops falling after several seconds, followed by natural rain.

Reports saying that Sunday’s occurrence lasted almost 10 minutes can be an exaggeration, he said.

Ballesteros added that aside from those living in Mansilingan area, the PDMT did not receive any report of hail falling in other parts of the province.*NAB

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