Hailstorm Interrupts Summer Weather in Morocco’s Fez-Meknes Region

Rabat – Videos and photos have gone viral online showing a heavy hailstorm hitting the Fez-Meknes region over the weekend.

One of the videos shows hailstones covering the green grass of a resident’s backyard.

Other photos submitted to Morocco World News show hailstones all over the region’s roads.

Youssef Belhaissi, a journalist for Morocco’s Medi1 TV channel, also shared photos showing the damages the hailstorm inflicted upon the city.

Photos posted on social media show car windows broken, birds killed, and fruits, like apples, damaged after the storm swept the Fez-Meknes region.

Climatologist and professor at Sidi Ben Abdellah University in Fez Mohamed Hanchane told Maghreb Arab Press (MAP) that hailstorms occur following a temperature difference between the Earth’s surface and the upper atmosphere.

The researcher said Morocco experienced a heat wave which overheated the surface of the ground. Since Friday, a cold front has moved in, making the air unstable with the “phenomena of violent ancestry in hot and humid air levels.”

“We can expect this situation when a thermal contrast takes place between a warm surface and cold air at altitude,” Hanchane said, adding that climatologists can predict hailstorms “a few days to a few hours before its occurrence, but it is difficult to estimate its intensity and its geographical extent.” 

Hanchane argued that such events are recurring phenomena but with a rare frequency.

While the brutal storm in Fez-Meknes was not unprecedented, the hail came as a shock to Moroccans given the current summery weather.

Morocco witnessed delayed rainfalls this winter, troubling this year’s agriculture season.

The national weather office issued press releases recently forecasting thunderstorms and heavy rains on Friday and Saturday throughout the country, even in several southern provinces.