Sudden Hailstorm Lashes Egypt's Alexandria

Hailstones covered the ground and battered seafront businesses during the storm in Egypt's Alexandria © Hazem GOUDA / AFP
Hailstones covered the ground and battered seafront businesses during the storm in Egypt's Alexandria © Hazem GOUDA / AFP
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Sudden Hailstorm Lashes Egypt's Alexandria

Hailstones covered the ground and battered seafront businesses during the storm in Egypt's Alexandria © Hazem GOUDA / AFP
Hailstones covered the ground and battered seafront businesses during the storm in Egypt's Alexandria © Hazem GOUDA / AFP

An unseasonal rainstorm battered the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Saturday, flooding roads and damaging seafront businesses in the latest bout of erratic weather to hit the region.

Hailstones pelted the city overnight, forcing people to flee cafes as gusts of wind blew the ice pellets through windows, according to footage posted on social media.

Lightning lit up the skies and underpasses were submerged.

Alexandria governor Ahmed Khaled Hassan raised the alert level and emergency crews worked through the morning to tow cars and clear debris.

No casualties were reported, Egypt's health ministry said, AFP reported.

Storms are common along Egypt's Mediterranean coast in winter, but media outlets described this spring event as "unprecedented".

Scientists warn extreme weather is becoming more frequent due to climate change, which drives both droughts and intense, unpredictable rainstorms.

Alexandria is highly vulnerable to climate impacts, suffering from coastal erosion, rising sea levels and flooding from annual storms.

The Mediterranean could rise by up to a metre (three feet) within three decades, according to the UN-mandated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Even under more optimistic forecasts, a 50-centimetre rise by 2050 would flood 30 percent of Alexandria, displace a quarter of its six million residents and cost 195,000 jobs.

Authorities have begun mitigation efforts, including constructing a massive breakwater along the coast.



Iceland Engulfed by Volcanic Cloud

Smoke and lava rise from a volcano eruption near Reykjanes, Iceland, 19 July 2025. EPA/JAKOB VEGERFORS
Smoke and lava rise from a volcano eruption near Reykjanes, Iceland, 19 July 2025. EPA/JAKOB VEGERFORS
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Iceland Engulfed by Volcanic Cloud

Smoke and lava rise from a volcano eruption near Reykjanes, Iceland, 19 July 2025. EPA/JAKOB VEGERFORS
Smoke and lava rise from a volcano eruption near Reykjanes, Iceland, 19 July 2025. EPA/JAKOB VEGERFORS

Iceland experts on Monday blamed a lack of wind for a volcanic cloud that has lingered over much of the island since an eruption last week.

Two craters of a volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula spewed out the sulphur-packed cloud on Wednesday, AFP reported.

The thick haze has left the capital Reykjavik and the southwest of the country in a pollution red alert, the highest level in Iceland's monitoring system.

Hylnur Arnason of the Icelandic Energy and Environment Agency said that volcanic eruptions normally cause air pollution, mainly from the sulphur dioxide that is emitted. The gas becomes sulfate in the atmosphere, creating a volcanic fog.

"It's completely misty in large parts of the country," said Arnason.

"Usually in Iceland we have lots of wind, which would carry the pollution away, but right now we don't," the expert added. "Now it's kind of just sitting over the whole country."

Arnason said the gas was not toxic but could be an "irritant".

The environment agency has recommended that vulnerable people should remain at home and take precautions against the pollution. The wind was expected to start strengthening again late Monday.