Snow capped peaks? Not quite, but parts of north Thailand blanketed in white after storm

[webfact]

Picture: Sanook

 

Sanook had to remind their readers that this was hot season Thailand after a hailstorm swept through Pai in the north of Thailand.

 

Their pictures showed large areas of Ban Hua Mae Muang in Pai, Mae Hong Son, covered in hailstones.

 

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A video showed a gleeful child amazed at the novelty that looked more like Switzerland!

 

But the beautiful scenes belied a hidden danger. Local phu yai ban or village leader Suwin Piapha reported widespread damage to property and agriculture from Saturday's rain and hailstorm.  

 

 

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Picture: Sanook

Picture: Sanook

Picture: Sanook

Picture: Sanook

[Mac Mickmanus]

I have friends staying in that location and they say they haven't seen any sleet or snow or anything and the weathers hot  

[VincentRJ]

1 hour ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

I have friends staying in that location and they say they haven't seen any sleet or snow or anything and the weathers hot  

Very strange! Perhaps your friends are in the 'very general' location, maybe 50 km away from this unusually cold event. It's not April 1st. ????

[Mac Mickmanus]

4 minutes ago, VincentRJ said:

Very strange! Perhaps your friends are in the 'very general' location, maybe 50 km away from this unusually cold event. It's not April 1st. ????

Well, they are right in between the two named locations , Pai and Mae Hon Song , 50 odd kilometers in either direction . 

  They said its hot there (30 degrees ) and no sleet or snow or whatever it was . 

Sent me some photos from today as well and no sign of anything white 

[Expat68]

2 hours ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Well, they are right in between the two named locations , Pai and Mae Hon Song , 50 odd kilometers in either direction . 

  They said its hot there (30 degrees ) and no sleet or snow or whatever it was . 

Sent me some photos from today as well and no sign of anything white 

Weather in Thailand can be very localised

[Mac Mickmanus]

2 minutes ago, Expat68 said:

Weather in Thailand can be very localised

Yes, but it would be very unusual to have freezing temperatures in one location and 90 degrees 50 kilometers away 

[hotchilli]

Maybe it's a whitewash?

[FolkGuitar]

2 hours ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Well, they are right in between the two named locations , Pai and Mae Hon Song , 50 odd kilometers in either direction . 

  They said its hot there (30 degrees ) and no sleet or snow or whatever it was . 

Sent me some photos from today as well and no sign of anything white 

 

28 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Yes, but it would be very unusual to have freezing temperatures in one location and 90 degrees 50 kilometers away 

With all due respect, I don't think you understand how hailstorms work. They require freezing temperatures only in UPPER ATMOSPHERE and must have very WARM temps in the lower.  If there are no warm rising air currents, hail can not form.  Hail is a summer occurrence only, while sleet forms in winter. Hailstones are usually quite round, while sleet is free-form frozen rain.

 

Tiny moisture droplets form at very high altitude and start to fall. They freeze as they are falling, but then the warm, RISING air hot-air currents carry them back up into the upper atmosphere where they get coated with a bit more moisture, freeze, and start to fall again. This gets repeated over and over again until the frozen ball get heavy enough so that it no longer gets swept back up, and finally falls to the ground. Usually, a hailstorm will only cover an area less than several hundred meters.

If you cut a hailstone in half, you can see the concentric rings of ice, looking just like a candy 'jawbreaker.'

[Skeptic7]

Helluva hail storm! 

[GreasyFingers]

Now that was some hailstorm. A similar one went through Sawtell, NSW, earlier this year. Friend said the hail was coming down almost horizontal.

[sometimewoodworker]

4 hours ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Yes, but it would be very unusual to have freezing temperatures in one location and 90 degrees 50 kilometers away 

Nobody’s suggesting cold temperatures, just extremely localised weather. Kilometres are not required metres are often enough with rain variations between totally dry and drenching rain on different sides of the same street being not that unusual.

[Mac Mickmanus]

4 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Nobody’s suggesting cold temperatures, just extremely localised weather. Kilometres are not required metres are often enough with rain variations between totally dry and drenching rain on different sides of the same street being not that unusual.

Yes, but you dont get freezing conditions on one side of the street and 90 degrees on the other side

[sometimewoodworker]

5 hours ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Yes, but you dont get freezing conditions on one side of the street and 90 degrees on the other side

Where are the freezing conditions???
Hail is a high atmosphere phenomenon, nothing to do with low atmosphere temperature differences, or had that fact escaped you?

 

after the localised rain/hail the area effected will be slightly cooler and more humid for a brief time.

[CNXBKKMAN]

You hear of hail stones every hot season in some village somewhere but they never seem to fall in CM City.  Well until  13:32 on 25 April 2020. These fell close to Chang Phuak Gate. They fell for less than a minute and melted quick because it was a blazing hot day during the hot season. For the odd person wondering how i can remember the date let alone the exact time ( i can't, not even the year!)  the camera records the info.