Hail

[DAVID GRAY]

In the northern, mountainous regions hail is not uncommon throughout the
year.  While I was staying in Sarnath, however, December 1997, we
received a furious hailstorm that lasted only about twenty minutes, but
produced stones as large as 2-3 cm in diameter.  Combined with
tempestous winds, this storm did a great deal of damage to local crops.
An elderly man I lived with said that this was an unusual occurance, but
recalled that there was a similar storm 30 or so years earlier, so it
seems that hail storms are not unknown in the Gangetic region during the
winter month (Winter does only seem to last about a month in the Sarnath area).

David Gray

Stephen Hodge wrote:
>
> I wonder if anybody can tell me what areas of the Indian sub-continent
> have hail -- I would imagine fairly northly, north-western regions.  I
> have a Sanskrit Buddhist text that mentions hail-storms and I suppose
> that the authors would have been with such weather conditions.
>
> Best wishes,
> Stephen Hodge