SANDAKAN – The residents of Kg Tinusa 2 in Mile 7 here were shocked when they heard hard objects hitting their roofs loudly during heavy rain, and soon found that their homes were being pelted by hailstones.
Never having seen such a phenomenon in their entire lives before, the villagers quickly recorded videos of the incident that happened for around 20 minutes, starting from around 5.50pm yesterday.
The falling ice were roughly the size of marbles and did not cause any casualties or serious damage to properties, apart from scaring a few villagers such as Salmah Silmon.
“I was at home at the time, when it suddenly started raining heavily. I then heard loud noises on my zinc roof and thought that someone else’s things had been blown by the wind. I went out of the house to check and found that it was raining ice cubes (hailstones).
“I quickly returned to my home and just prayed that it would stop. It stopped after about 20 minutes and when I felt relieved that my house and my stuff outside the house were still okay.
“There were small ice cubes everywhere on the ground outside,” she told The Vibes.
The 45-year-old said that it is the first time she experienced the weather phenomenon, which is rare in Malaysia.
However, Sabah Meteorological Department director Amirzudi Hashim explained that hailstones are common and people do not need to be overly concerned.
It typically happens with heavy rain and strong wind, particularly when an active cumulonimbus cloud reaches 12 kilometres above the ground, and the temperature of the air inside the cloud reaches the freezing threshold, causing the formation of ice inside the cloud.
“The ice that is formed inside the cloud falls with the rain (as hailstones) as the ice does not have sufficient time to melt before it reaches the ground,” he told The Vibes.
Amirzudi said that hailstones that fall with the rain are usually small, about 1.5cm, like marbles.
“This is common for areas that are under cumulonimbus clouds, and is very usually very brief; about 10 to 20 minutes.
The Meteorological Department had forecast thunderous rain, heavy rain, and strong wind until 11pm in Sabah.
In another development, heavy rain and strong winds in Sandakan district destroyed a Ramadan bazaar in Mile 16 Gum Gum here.
Dozens of food operators there had to go home with tremendous losses as strong winds blew away canopies, overturned tables, and spilled food all over the floor.
Several houses were also badly damaged as strong winds uprooted zinc roofs.
The Sandakan Fire and Rescue Department had also reported that the roof of a primary school in Gum Gum had been blown off by the extreme weather at about 5pm yesterday.
Fortunately, the school was empty at the time and no one was harmed. – The Vibes, April 10, 2022
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