Northern Alsace has not escaped thunderstorms which are agitating part of France this first weekend in May. This Saturday, May 3, an impressive hail storm hit the village of Hirschland (Bas-Rhin). Holders over 2 cm fell overnight.
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Strong rains and harsh: the thunderstorms were announced and they lived the evening of Saturday May 3 on a good part of the Bas-Rhin. It was in the north of the department that they were the most virulent.
The thunderstorms were impressive in particular near the border with the Moselle, as evidenced by this resident of Hirschland, a small town in Alsace Bossue. “I went from friends, shortly before 9 pm, and it started to fall. The hail lasted only one to two minutes, it was not long, but I was really afraid”.
The hailstones, which exceeded 2 cm in diameter, do not seem to have caused damage. After almost 45 minutes of intense rains, the bulk of the bad weather had passed. An intense, in short and localized episode.
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©Laety Schmidt
In the evening, several Internet users testified to the passage of thunderstorms in the region, on Saturday May 3 around 9:30 p.m.
Consequently, temperatures have dropped suddenly in the hours that have followed, as forecasts have been planning it for several days, after the accumulation of excessive heat for the season.
For Guillaume Ferry, Director of Predict Services operations, the Subsidiary Risk of Météo France, “These are classic situations when there are air masses conflicts. We approached the 30 degrees and the cold polar air from the British islands faced the hot air mass. Heat accumulation has generated thunderstorms with hail“. The months of May and June in Alsace are conducive to thunderstorms.
Hail is formed inside the storm clouds in cumulonimbus. These very vertical clouds have a shape of anvil at their top. “”The water rises in the cloud and freezes very quickly while going up. Hail is formed when there is a high temperature gradient between the ground and the top of the cloud. The size of the hailstones depends on the agglomeration of several particles of water. Sometimes hailstones merge together“, Specifies Guillaume Ferry. These meteorological phenomena remain punctual and very localized. It is difficult to predict hailstorms.
