Adaklu Kodzobi (V/R)- Residents of Adaklu Kodzobi Electoral Area in the Adaklu district have welcomed their first rain of the year, which came with hailstones.
Pastor Daniel Kpatah, a Minister of the Emmanuel Baptist Church cautioned the residents to change from their evil ways.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), he said, “this could be a warning from God to humanity to change from our evil ways saying, when God asked Pharaoh to release the Israelites and he hardened his heart, he punished the Egyptians with hailstones.”
He, however, noted that it could also be a good tiding for farmers adding, “whether good or bad, we should constantly seek the face of God in prayers.”
Mr Michael Adu Awuku, Volta Regional Director of Ghana Meteorological Agency told the GNA that the hailstone situation was normally backed by scientific explanations.
He said hailstorms are normal precipitations in the form of large lumps of ice formed in thunderstorm clouds.
He said the formation and growth of hailstones take place in the supercooled part of the cloud.
As the equilibrium vapour pressure over the water is greater than the saturation vapour pressure over the ice, at the same temperature, the liquid water evaporates, and the vapour diffuses onto the ice crystals, and they grow more rapidly than droplets.
Mr Awuku said the growth of ice crystals to hailstones is because of the collision and coalescence of ice particles and water droplets. The strong updrafts ensure a long lifetime of the hailstones in the clouds, which reach such large sizes.
He discounted the rare phenomenon resulting from the climate change situation.
Mr Seth Letsu, a renowned farmer in the area speaking to the issue, said it was a good omen for farmers.
He advised farmers to start preparing their lands for early planting this major season.
Mr Samuel Deh, a civil servant resident in the area, was grateful to God for the rains adding that the dust which engulfed the area due to the untarred roads and the intense heat would minimise.
The last hailstone experienced in the area, which destroyed a lot of food crops, was in June last year and the last rainfall was in the first week of December 2021.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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