Freak summer hailstorm buries Mexico’s Guadalajara city in 1.5 metres of ice

Governor blames climate change for extreme weather after heavy storm

A freak summer hailstorm has hit one of Mexico’s most populous cities, burying cars and covering the streets with ice up to 1.5 metres thick.

More than 200 homes and businesses were damaged in Guadalajara, Jalisco, and at least 50 vehicles were reportedly swept away by the storm, according to local newspaper El Informador.

Army and emergency services personnel were drafted in to work on clearing the streets overnight and to support citizens who suffered damage to their homes.

Although hailstorms have hit the city of more than five million people before, they have rarely been this heavy.

Guadalajara had seen temperatures of 30C less than 24 hours before the storm.

Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, Jalisco's governor, suggested that the extreme weather had been caused by climate change after evaluating the damage yesterday.

“I witnessed scenes that I had never seen before: the hail more than a metre high, and then we ask ourselves if climate change is real,” he wrote on Twitter.

Men remain next to trucks buried in hail in the eastern area of Guadalajara, Jalisco state, Mexico (AFP/Getty Images)

Mr Ramírez added there were no recorded injuries or deaths from the incident.

While children enjoyed the freak storm and hurled ice balls at each other, Civil Protection personnel and soldiers were brought in with heavy machinery to clear the roads.

Early this morning, more extreme weather was predicted off Mexico’s southern coast, as the US National Hurricane Centre said a newly formed tropical storm had gained strength.

The organisation said it was expected to reach hurricane strength but was unlikely to threaten land.​​