Spanish scientists from the University of Valladolid determined the cause of the giant hail that fell on the Catalan city of Girona in the summer of 2022. While the victim of the disaster was a 1.5-year-old girl, 67 people were injured due to hail reaching 12 centimeters in size. Ice crusts damaged hundreds of buildings and vehicles and also caused serious damage to crops. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Geophysical Research Letters (GRL).
According to experts, the cause of the largest hail in the country’s history was abnormally high temperatures of sea water, which warmed by more than 3 ° C compared to seasonal averages.
The team found that atmospheric convective energy reached unprecedented levels. So, with moisture from the warm ocean, something called a supercell formed in the region – a storm cloud with vertical rising air currents.
To further investigate this question, scientists used a dataset of more than 280 documented supercells from 2011 to 2022.
Researchers concluded that climate warming not only caused the largest hailstorm in Spain’s history but also contributed to the recurrence of similar disasters in the future.
Meteorologists before stated to dangerous changes in the climate of the stratosphere.