By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 22: It was a normal wintry day in Shillong on Wednesday until around noon when dark clouds began hovering over the city and in a span of minutes followed rains.
But no sooner did the people hear the pitter and patter of rain drops than the hailstones began dropping on different parts of the city covering the cityscape in white. This phenomenon also turned the air in the city chillier.
Later, netizens flooded social media with pictures and videos of hailstones, with some even dubbing it as snowfall in Shillong. Tin roofs, roads, and fields were covered with pebble-sized hailstones. Some even made snowman figures out of hailstones.
Speaking about this sudden shift in the weather, the officials from the Metrological centre, Shillong, informed that a cyclonic circulation had formed over Bangladesh, which lies over south Bangladesh and extends up to 3.1 km above mean sea level.
These officials also stated that hailstones realised over Shillong and nearby area around 1 PM.
Freezing level was near 3.1 km, they said, while adding that in hilly areas, mainly in winters, hail size is very small due to weak updrafts/downdrafts.