Historic hailstorm hits Catalonia, Spain
Image credit: Meteocat
A sudden, violent hailstorm wreaked havoc in parts of Catalonia, Spain on August 30, 2022, killing a toddler and leaving at least 50 people injured.
According to the Catalonian meteorological service – Meteocat, hailstones as large as 10 cm (4 inches) in diameter, or the size of a softball, rained down on the village of La Bisbal d’Emporda, north of Barcelona, for about 10 minutes, causing significant damage and casualties.1
“There was chaos, with little boys and girls running around alone, some parents were able to grab their children,” musician Sicus Carbonell, who was playing with his band at a local hotel, told Reuters.2
“Then a hailstone broke through the fabric … and I told my group that either we get into the restaurant or one of those tennis balls would land on us and we wouldn’t make it.”
The storm left at least 50 people injured, including a 20-month-old girl who later died in the hospital.
Meteocat said the hailstones were the largest recorded in Catalonia during the past two decades, adding that the thunderstorms that produced the hail were triggered by a cold front approaching Western Europe from the Atlantic Ocean.
References:
1 Pedregada històrica a Catalunya – Meteocat – August 31, 2022
2 Severe hailstorm strikes northern Spain, killing toddler – Reuters – August 31, 2022
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
Published in the last 24 hours
- In September 1859, a solar storm lit up the night sky so brightly that gold miners in the Rocky Mountains woke up after midnight and started cooking breakfast, convinced the aurora glowing over their camp was the sunrise Epicenter
- A patch of warm Pacific water that could become the strongest El Niño in more than 70 years sits thousands of miles from any American town, yet it is already the main reason NOAA expects a wetter winter across the South and a milder one across the North
- A 19-year-old Nebraska teacher reportedly tied her pupils together with twine and led them to safety through a blizzard in January 1888 Epicenter
