On the evening of September 13 (Saturday), hail suddenly hit multiple areas in Beijing, with hailstones as large as ping-pong balls in Fengtai, Daxing, and elsewhere, some as big as chicken eggs. Netizens described it as if the sky was raining ice cubes.
According to the Beijing Meteorological Observatory, from 5 pm to 10 pm on the 13th, scattered thunderstorms will move from west to east across Beijing, with locally heavy rain and short-term winds of 7-9 on the Beaufort scale, along with hail in mountainous areas.
Beijing’s Tongzhou District, Haidian District, Xicheng District, Chaoyang District, Dongcheng District, Daxing District, Shijingshan District, Fengtai District, Fangshan District, and Mentougou District are under a yellow hail warning.
In the late evening of the 13th, hail started falling in various areas of Beijing including Fangshan, Fengtai, Mentougou, Daxing, with hailstones as big as ping-pong balls.
A netizen in Fengtai remarked that hail was pouring down like in the Ice Age, saying, “It’s like the sky is dumping ice, it’s the largest I’ve seen in Fengtai.”
Another netizen in Daxing said: “Hail floating on the rain-soaked road, it’s like floating glaciers.”
A video shared by a netizen showed that after a sudden crackling sound, several hailstones bounced through an open window into the house.
Another video shared by a netizen depicted hail in Beijing hitting the ground like a hail of bullets, leaving cars pockmarked!
According to Beijing Traffic Broadcast, as of 8 pm on the 13th, the average precipitation in the city was 5.5 mm, with the urban area averaging 5.3 mm. The highest precipitation occurred at Damo Village in Mentougou, reaching 42.4 mm; the highest intensity was recorded in Dongmagezhuang Village in Tongzhou, with a precipitation of 34.3 mm from 7 pm to 8 pm on the 13th.
Hail, with a maximum diameter of around 2 cm, was observed in Fangshan, Fengtai, Mentougou, Daxing, Tongzhou, and Chaoyang districts. Parts of Yanqing, Mentougou, Daxing, Tongzhou, Fengtai, and Fangshan experienced wind gusts of 8-9 on the Beaufort scale, reaching 10-11 in some areas.
As of that night, the city was under a yellow thunderstorm and lightning warning as well as a blue wind warning.
The Daxing Fire Department reminded the public that during hailstorms, the wind is often strong, and hail may shatter glass, posing a safety hazard. Residents should promptly close doors and windows, pull down curtains or blinds indoors to prevent injury from flying glass shards.
Additionally, at 6 pm on September 13, the China Meteorological Administration continued to issue a blue warning for severe convective weather, predicting that from 8 pm on the 13th to 8 pm on the 14th, some areas in Northeast China, the northeastern part of North China, and northern Jiangnan could experience thunderstorms, strong winds of Beaufort scale 8 or higher, or hail.