Officials from the National Environment Agency have assured worried residents that the hailstorm that hit western Singapore was not toxic, according to Yahoo.
A hailstorm had not been reported in Singapore since March 2008 so it is understandable that residents were not used to the falling ice. For the last week Singapore has been obscured by a haze caused by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia. The Pollutant Standards Index hit a new all-time high of 401, a reading of 300 is considered to be "hazardous," according to Bloomberg.
The NEA added that hail is caused when super-cooled droplets of water coming into contact with particles such as dust and freezing on contact and that they are not hazardous. It is possible that the hailstorm was caused by the haze but the NEA had been unable to confirm if that were the case.
WesternPacificWeather.com says that a report that was published in Science in 2004 explained that weather conditions similar to what Singapore has been enduring are capable of producing hail. The report said that while air pollution and smoke will prevent rain they can also help foster storms that may be accompanied by hail by forcing atmospheric pressure to build.
Hopes are that the heavy rains will help the haze dissipate from Singapore. Residents were scared by the uncommon weather event.
"The wind turned very cold, and these crystal-like stones started raining down," Laura Tang, a 24-year-old musician, told Yahoo. "It was very frightening. I could not believe my eyes."
"[They were] very sharp droplets that were a little prickly, like sand, when it landed on my hand," Caydence Woo, a 24-year-old banking executive, told Yahoo. "The droplets also looked weird. They were coming down in straight, solid lines, instead of one by one.
The hailstorm was also accompanied by some high winds that knocked over tress and cause some minor damage, according to Yahoo.
