Weather tracker: hail covers parts of Tunisia and Algeria like snow | Extreme weather

Severe storms affected the Mediterranean this week. On Monday, the surface low pressure system in the Mediterranean together with the upper air low caused storms in North Africa. Their intensity was aided by warm leading conditions.

Algeria and Tunisia were particularly affected by the storms, resulting in some layers of hail. When this much hail occurs, sheets of hail begin to fall and cover the ground like snow. Hailstones up to 3 cm in diameter were reported in Oum Ladjoul and Hammam Sokhna in Algeria, while hailstones up to 3 cm in diameter were seen in Makthar, Tunisia. Storms continued in the region the next day, and more hail accumulated, especially in Ouled Bousmir, Tunisia, where a layer approximately 2 cm deep was found.

Later in the week, another surface low developed, this time in Sicily. Storms hit central Italy on Wednesday morning. These included 52.1 mm of rain in just over 1 hour 10 minutes in the city of Ascoli Piceno and 62.3 mm of rain in just under 1 hour 50 minutes in the town of Mosciano Sant’Angelo. Other regions were also affected; 46 mm of rain fell in 36 minutes in the Sicilian town of Bagheria, while heavy rain was recorded in Algeria and Tunisia.

There have been severe storms elsewhere in the world this week, particularly in the northeastern United States. On Tuesday evening, a supercell impacted Dane County, Wisconsin, resulting in a tornado warning being put into effect. A tornado occurred according to radar, but there were no confirmed reports of it touching down. But this supercell also caused some heavy hail. Baseball-sized hailstones were reported around Madison. These objects, 7 cm in diameter, were twice the size of those reported in Tunisia.

Severe storms continued across the northeastern United States the next day and spread into Ohio. During this outbreak, even larger hail, up to 11.5 cm in diameter, was reported near Kansas City, with baseball-sized rocks seen.

Hurricanes also played a large role in these storm outbreaks; There have been nearly 20 tornadoes across the US this week, particularly in Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota.