Philippines: Ice crystals destroy vegetable plantations

A huge volume of vegetables in their vegetative, flowering and harvest-able stages grown in highly elevated areas of this province were affected by the sudden downpour of ice crystals locally known as "dalalo" for over 40 minutes over the past several days.

However, agriculture stakeholders ruled that the damage wrought by the ice crystals on vegetable farms will not take its toll on the supply of vegetables coming from the province since only those produced in highly-elevated areas were partially damaged.

"Dalalo" or hail usually occurs after a hot day with cumulus clouds over the sky, thus, the hot and cold weather often meet and create interaction that will result to the breaking of the ice crystals formed by the clouds and causing it to drop on the ground.

Several farmers whose crops were partially affected by hail described the ice crystals to be as big as marbles and that they reportedly break after falling on the ground.