The hailstorm raining ice chunks the size of cups in Jerantut, Pahang on Monday is not an ordinary phenomenon for an equatorial country.

Department of Environment (DOE) meteorological officer Zureen Norhaizatul Che Hassan said the hot and wet climate of Malaysia which lies in the equatorial grid does not allow the formation of ice chunks in the atmosphere.

"We have to study the ice chunks before making any assumption. It is important for us to go back to the dynamics of physics by looking at the physics of clouds," she told Bernama here today.

Villagers in Jerantut received a rude shock on Monday when chunks of ice, some said to be as big as cups rained on them, destroying roofs, trees and electricity poles.

Zureen described the incident at 7pm as shocking although Malaysia had experienced hailstorm raining ice the size of 50 sen coins.

She said normally, the ice was not bigger than a five sen coin adding as hailstorm was a normal phenomenon in countries with snow.

"I used to come across such ice when young but it was nothing like those which fell in Jerantut. It was too small and melted before I could put it in my mouth," she said.

Incident linked to typhoon Ketsana

Asked whether the climate and temperature had caused the formation of ice, Zureen said it was difficult to say as rainfall over the past 30 years had been in the same range of 2,000-5,000mm annually.

"Rainfall and temperature readings always fluctuate. Factors like the Monsoon change and the hot and cold La Nina and El Nino winds can also cause this but it can't be used as a yardstick for climate change in the country.

"Ice chunks usually occur in countries with temperatures of below 0 degree Celsius and not possible for an equatorial country like Malaysia," she said.

Meanwhile, the Pahang Meteorological Department said the incident was linked to typhoon Ketsana which lashed the Philippines was now entering the Vietnam coastline.

"The typhoon clashed with the Cumulonimbus clouds bearing a thunderstorm at 6,000-9,000 metres from ground level turning water into ice," he said.

- Bernama