What is the truth about the snowfall in Alexandria, Egypt, yesterday, Friday?

Arab Weather - A number of social media users shared videos from Alexandria, Egypt, on Friday, May 30, 2025, showing the weather conditions in Egypt following a low-pressure system. Some described the weather as snowy, but did Egypt actually experience snowfall?

The answer is no. Alexandria did not experience any snowfall during the recent low pressure system. Rather, the country witnessed the passage of an effective cold front accompanied by thunderstorms. Due to the coldness of all layers of the atmosphere, the rainfall was in the form of heavy hail showers that accumulated on the ground. However, once the cold front completed its passage and the hail stopped, floods formed and the water level rose.

From a scientific perspective, it is extremely rare for Egypt to experience snowfall. For this to happen, very specific weather conditions are required, and Egypt's geographical nature contributes to the rarity of snowfall.

What is hail and how is it formed?

Hail can be defined as irregularly shaped balls of frozen water that form within cumulus clouds (specifically, cumulonimbus) and thunderstorms. Hailstones fall to the ground in varying sizes, but can be very large and dense, causing significant material damage in some cases. Hailstones range in diameter from a few millimeters to several centimeters, and are composed of ice layers about 1 mm thick. Giant hailstones can reach 20–40 cm or more in size.

For hail to form inside cumulus clouds, several factors are required, including the meeting of two air masses with different characteristics, one cold and the other warm, or in low-pressure systems and cold fronts, or through the formation of convective clouds, where clouds grow in all layers of the atmosphere and reach high levels and become cumulus with a towering vertical extension, at which point the temperature at that level is below freezing.

And God knows best.