NEA confirms it was raining hailstones in Singapore

Channel NewsAsia 27 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE: The sudden downpour on Thursday afternoon brought more than just heavy rain.

Hailstones were raining down in some parts of Singapore, according to callers to Channel NewsAsia’s hotline.

The National Environment Agency later confirmed that hailstones were reported in central Singapore between 3.15pm and 3.45pm.

Callers said the hailstones were the size of 5 cent coins.

They were seen mainly in Bishan, Toa Payoh and Ang Mo Kio.

Rosie Hoe, a witness to the hailstones in Bishan, said: "We tried to take photographs but it doesn't show on our cameras. So, they were calling their friends and all to come and see. So, there were actually quite a lot of people here."

It's believed the hailstones fell for about 20 minutes before subsiding.

The last hailstone incident was reported in July 2007.

Hailstones form in intense thunderstorm clouds. Such clouds develop when there is strong convection, which occur all year round in the tropics.

Generally, the hailstones would have been melted before they reach the ground.

However, in the presence of a strong downdraft in an intense thunderstorm, the hailstones can be brought to the ground rapidly without melting. - CNA/vm

Central Singapore hit by hailstone shower
Icy pellets get residents in Toa Payoh, Bishan and Braddell excited
Diana Othman & Sumathi V. Selvaretnam, Straits Times 28 Mar 08;

PARTS of Singapore were pelted with hailstones during yesterday afternoon's heavy downpour.

The weatherman confirmed that these pellets of ice were reported in central Singapore between 3.15pm and 3.45pm.

Roughly three-quarters the size of a five-cent coin, they caused a stir among those living or working in Bishan and Toa Payoh.

Hailstones, formed in thunderstorm clouds, usually melt before they hit the ground, but strong downward gusts of wind sometimes send them to the ground before they melt.

A managing director, who wanted to be known only as Mr Goh, was in his office in a flatted factory in Braddell Road when the hail started falling. He said he thought at first it was just raining heavily.

'But the sound of the rain was different - it sounded more like solid things were falling,' he said.

Going out to the corridor in front of his office, he and his staff saw tiny bead-like objects bouncing about on the ground as the rain poured down.

They became excited when they realised the beads were solid pieces of ice which melted as soon as they picked them up.

Mr Goh, who said it was the first time he had seen this weather phenomenon, added that at first, there was 'quite a lot of ice' but, as the minutes went by, they petered out and only rain fell.

He reckoned the hailstones fell for about 10 minutes.

Another witness, IT consultant Stuyvesant Lim, 35, was observing a quiet game of chess at a Residents' Committee Centre in Bishan East when he heard a commotion outside.

He said: 'I thought it was kids throwing ice from the block. Then we realised it was falling from the sky.'

He realised another thing - that had the hailstones been bigger, the windscreens of cars could have been damaged.

Mrs Evelyn Chan, 53, who runs a machine tools business with her husband but was home yesterday, said the strangely 'hazy' atmosphere made her step out of her kitchen into the backyard of her house in Carmichael Road, off Braddell Road.

She said: 'When I looked at the ground, I saw crystals. I thought it was snow. But when I picked up a piece, I realised it was ice.'

The last time hail fell here was in July last year.

It's raining ice ... in Singapore
Today Online 28 Mar 08;

WITH the overcast sky and heavy rains reducing his vision, Mr Norman Tan switched on his windscreen wiper as he was driving along the Central Expressway yesterday afternoon.

"Suddenly, I see something jumping and bouncing on my windscreen. It doesn't look like rain. It's definitely not water," said Mr Tan, who added that he was afraid, not knowing what was "dropping from the sky".

He recounted his unusual encounter to 938Live: "The moment it drops, it bounces, then it melts."

Mr Tan was among several callers to the 938Live hotline who said they had spotted ice pieces — later confirmed as hailstones — in areas such as Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio and Bishan.

Cabbie Mr Ng knew that it was not just normal rain because "there was banging on the roof of my taxi".

"The ice pieces were the size of green or red beans," Mr Ng said.

The National Environmental Agency Meteorological Services confirmed that hailstones were reported in central Singapore between 3.15pm and 3.45pm yesterday. The last such incident here occurred on July 27 last year.

According to the agency, hailstones form in intense thunderstorm clouds, which occur all year round in the tropics.

"Generally, the hailstones would have been melted before they reach the ground. However, in the presence of a strong downdraft in an intense thunderstorm, the hailstones can be brought to the ground rapidly without melting," it said in a statement.