Guadalajara digs out from more than 4 feet of hail

MEXICO CITY – A storm dumped more than 4 feet (more than a meter) of hail on parts of the Guadalajara area, damaging hundreds of homes and burying cars up to their windows in some places, Mexican officials said Monday.

The Jalisco state government brought in heavy machinery to clear streets and dig out businesses in the country’s second largest city. Sunday’s storm left streets looking like rivers of ice, while hail clogged drainage systems, causing flooding in some spots.

Jalisco Gov. Enrique Alfaro said via Twitter that he had never seen anything like it.

Following the early morning storm, the temperature reached a high of 81 degrees in Guadalajara.

On Monday, residents of San Miguel de Allende, a high desert community popular with U.S. tourists, awoke to several inches of hail clogging city streets. The local government posted photographs of workers shovelling hail and of buildings damaged by fallen trees.