Hail in Abu Dhabi during a previous spell of unstable weather. The National
Hail in Abu Dhabi during a previous spell of unstable weather. The National
Hail in Abu Dhabi during a previous spell of unstable weather. The National
Hail in Abu Dhabi during a previous spell of unstable weather. The National

Why is hail falling in the UAE in the middle of summer?


Daniel Bardsley
  • English
  • Arabic

When the mercury rises in the UAE during the summer, the last things residents expect to see falling from the sky are hailstones – but they have appeared this week.

Social media users in Al Ain have posted videos of hailstones that appear to be sized somewhere between a pea and a golf ball.

The sudden flurry created an unlikely winter wonderland at the height of another sizzling summer in the UAE desert.

It came amid a spell of cloudy weather and rain that primarily affected Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

Why are we seeing hail in the summer and why are updrafts important?

Crucial to the formation of hail are updrafts of air, which keep ice particles suspended in the atmosphere and allow them to grow into hailstones before they fall to Earth.

Surprisingly, the conditions that are ideal for hailstone formation are more likely to be seen in summer in the UAE.

“With warmer temperatures, the updrafts are stronger and sustained in time,” said Dr Diana Francis, an assistant professor and head of the Environmental and Geophysical Science (Engeos) Lab at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi.

“That’s why the UAE witnesses hailstones when convective clouds occur during summer, when the temperatures are very high.

“The warm air naturally rises up, which fuels and maintains strong updrafts within the convective clouds.”

David Schultz, a professor of synoptic meteorology at the University of Manchester in the UK, said a number of factors, including a weather front or a sea breeze, could create an updraft capable of keeping ice particles in the atmosphere to form hail.

“What you need to start that updraft is usually a convergence of air coming from various locations. There are a number of ways that could happen,” he said.

The terrain could also cause an updraft, he said, with mountains able to cause the air movement required.

How do hailstones form and grow?

Large hailstones which fell in Sharjah in May, 2021. Photo: National Centre of Meteorology
Large hailstones which fell in Sharjah in May, 2021. Photo: National Centre of Meteorology

According to US space agency Nasa, the starting point for hailstones can be aggregated ice particles, known as graupel, or frozen raindrops.

The water exists in frozen form because temperatures 5km or 6km up in the atmosphere are below freezing, said Prof Schultz.

“Any cloud producing rain or snow at the surface of the middle or high latitudes … will start out as ice or snow,” he said.

“The conditions that form hail – you will have very strong updrafts into these clouds.”

“You can imagine that [hailstones] several centimetres across require even stronger [updrafts] in the atmosphere to keep [them] suspended in the air,” Prof Schultz said.

Dr Francis said that large hailstones were the result of several down-and-up movements of the hail that had initially formed within a cloud.

“They get tossed back up to the top of the storm by another updraft,” Dr Francis said. “Each trip above and below freezing adds another layer of ice until the hail becomes heavy enough to fall down to the surface.”

Nasa notes that each hailstone can experience both dry growth, when their surface remains dry, or wet growth, when a water-ice mesh forms. The combination creates a layered internal structure.

Why don't hailstones melt as they fall to Earth?

Eventually the hailstones become so large and heavy that the updrafts cannot keep them suspended any longer and they fall to Earth.

“Because they're falling quite rapidly, several metres per second, they can fall relatively quickly before they have time to melt,” Prof Schultz said.

He said hailstones could fall even in equatorial regions, as long as there was a strong enough updraft and they fell too fast to melt on the way down.

According to Nasa, hailstones are typically about 1cm in diameter, but some as large as 15cm in diameter have been recorded.

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UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
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Milestones on the road to union

1970

October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar. 

December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.

1971

March 1:  Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.

July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.

July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.

August 6:  The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.

August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.

September 3: Qatar becomes independent.

November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.

November 29:  At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.

November 30: Despite  a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa. 

November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties

December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.

December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.

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Hometown: Dubai

City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Updated: August 07, 2024, 3:28 AM`