Al Arabiya English reached out to Elias Saadeh, founder of Lebanon Weather Forecast, who mentioned that Saturday's phenomenon is due to severe supercell clouds. It lasted around an hour, coupled with severe thunderstorms and heavy hailstones.
"This supercell affected only the coastal area around Beirut and its suburbs. A supercell effect is always local. Weather stations in Beirut recorded 50mm of rainfall in a lapse of 25 minutes. This quantity is considered enormous since it is equivalent to pouring 50 liters of water in each square meter in 25 minutes. Moreover, this supercell caused a drastic drop in temperature from 21°C to 13.5°C in a couple of minutes," added Saadeh.
Saadeh added that supercell was formed because of favorable environmental atmospheric conditions, including but not limited to the variation in temperature between the sea surface temperature and the temperature in the upper levels of the atmosphere.
"The updraft and downdraft flows became organized and twisted around and reinforced each other. The updraft speed might have reached around 30 meters per second, explaining the size of hailstones recorded," he added.
Saadeh elaborated that historically, and according to available captures of the previous severe hailstorms, the last time Beirut witnessed a similar event was in the year 1968.
Reader Comments
R.C.