Northern Villages Battered By Hour-long Hail Storm

[Jai Dee]

Northern Villages battered by hour-long hail storm

Four villages in the Northern Province of Chiang Rai were reportedly battered by an hour-long episode of hail stones which rained heavily yesterday. The freak weather condition took place over villages in Tambon Huay Sak (ห้วยสัก).

Initial reports state that the almost 60 minute incident of frozen rain and ice falling onto the villages caused extensive damage to homes and property. The weather condition, although uncommon in the Kingdom, follows months of sporadic temperatures throughout the country and is also on the tail of erratic cold that all but crippled China in the past weeks.

No reports of injury were released however.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 29 February 2008

[sceadugenga]

Fortunately it passed us by here JD, (near Mae Lao) we noted the black cloud mass to the North and closed the house up but there appeared to be a wind change and it swung away. My brother in law's girlfriend said that several houses in her village, 30kms away, lost their roofs.

[Felt 35]

Question from South.

What kind of hail is falling in Chiang Rai when houses get damaged? I’m curious because I shall visit Chiang Rai next month and would like to know if its hailstorms as we often see in Northern Europe you have up there or is it frozen bricks, which is falling in North Thailand?

Thanks & Regards

[sceadugenga]

I've lived here five years and I've never seen hail.

According to my father in law it's a very rare happening.

[villagefarang]

The problem with hail here is that most Thai roofs are very weak. A couple years ago a storm hit an hour after we left for Bangkok. Most of the roofs were damaged. Some shattered and some had holes in them. Don't think the weather has to be too severe before you can have major damage.

[sceadugenga]

The cement sheets that are commonly used for roofing tiles break very easily but are also quickly and easily replaced. The main damage occurs, as with all tiled roofs, if heavy rain follows the hail and then you get severe water damage inside the house.

[klikster]

Hail during Songkran is pretty common. I experienced it 2 times while living there. Strong winds, a sudden chill and hailstones mixed with dam_n cold rain. Hailsones covering the ground in April. Soon it was all over.

One of my Thai buds told me it "usually" happened at Songkran. Maybe the calendar got screwed up this year .. or the northen folks just got a pre-holiday bonus.

[silverhawk_usa]

Hail during Songkran is pretty common. I experienced it 2 times while living there. Strong winds, a sudden chill and hailstones mixed with dam_n cold rain. Hailsones covering the ground in April. Soon it was all over.

One of my Thai buds told me it "usually" happened at Songkran. Maybe the calendar got screwed up this year .. or the northen folks just got a pre-holiday bonus.

I was attending a party at a friends house in Chiang Khong when the storm came through. High winds, a torrential downpour and thunder and lightening. A few people arriving at the party said they had driven through hail. The storm was relatively short lived in that area however.

[sceadugenga]

Hail during Songkran is pretty common. I experienced it 2 times while living there. Strong winds, a sudden chill and hailstones mixed with dam_n cold rain. Hailsones covering the ground in April. Soon it was all over.

One of my Thai buds told me it "usually" happened at Songkran. Maybe the calendar got screwed up this year .. or the northen folks just got a pre-holiday bonus.

I was attending a party at a friends house in Chiang Khong when the storm came through. High winds, a torrential downpour and thunder and lightening. A few people arriving at the party said they had driven through hail. The storm was relatively short lived in that area however.

That seems to be typical of this type of unpredictable weather pattern. Almost a "mini cyclone", there and gone in a short time.

I'd imagine crop damage would have been severe, the new soy bean plantings over our way would have been particularly sensitive to this type of bad weather.

[chownah]

Where I live in Chiangrai hail is not so unusual...maybe once a year or every other year there will be small ones falling. I have been here about 6 years and about 4 years ago (or was it 5?) we had a hail storm that broke 8 roofing pieces (the usual thin cement ones) and almost all of my neighbors had varying amount of damage while in a village a couple of kilometres distant some people lost virtually all the sheets on their rooves. I measured one oval shaped hail stone and it was 2 cm the small way and 3 cm the big way.

Chownah

[Felt 35]

Huh…. that’s quite big Chownah, I thought I had left the ice age behind me. Hail as big as Golf balls happen now and then back home, but its unusual and never seen it myself, only seen up to sugar bit size.

Thanks.

[sceadugenga]

I've seen hail that big in Australia, A storm came through my former home city of Adelaide a few years back on a hot summers day and caused more than a million dollars damage in our street alone.

The solar hot water bizzos were just becoming popular and you can imagine how the panels fared.

[svenivan]

Northern Villages battered by hour-long hail storm

Four villages in the Northern Province of Chiang Rai were reportedly battered by an hour-long episode of hail stones which rained heavily yesterday. The freak weather condition took place over villages in Tambon Huay Sak (ห้วยสัก).

Initial reports state that the almost 60 minute incident of frozen rain and ice falling onto the villages caused extensive damage to homes and property. The weather condition, although uncommon in the Kingdom, follows months of sporadic temperatures throughout the country and is also on the tail of erratic cold that all but crippled China in the past weeks.

No reports of injury were released however.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 29 February 2008

I was in the middle of this storm and it was scary. Absolute the worst one I have been into since I came 6 years ago.

We lost a couple of trees, the roof on the pumphouse plus looking for belongings 50 m from the house. The hailstorm was not too bad, the biggest ones I saw were around 1.5 cm in diameter.

One house in the village lost the roof, in neighbour village that we passed 2 hours later at least 3 houses had lost their roofs.

The problem this time was the very hard wind, not the hails.

I would say it was more than 35 m per second. I stayed in the house during the storm because outside things were flying and easy to get knocked out!

Little too early for these storms, at least one month earlier than normal. But what is normal this year? We normally never have rain between middle of October and middle of March. This season it rained until end of November and we have had 4-5 rains in Jan and Feb.