The Egyptian Meteorological Authority confirmed,rare phenomenon known as the “rain bomb” in the sky

Is Alexandria drowning? Egypt confirms the appearance of a rare "rain bomb" in the city's sky

What is scientifically called "the rain bomb" appeared in the sky of Alexandria, which the citizens described as a "rain bomb". What is the phenomenon and what is its danger?

The Egyptian Meteorological Authority confirmed, on Saturday, the occurrence of a rare phenomenon known as the “rain bomb” in the sky of Alexandria, after days of uproar and fears about its appearance during the bad weather in the country.

The authority said (officially) in a statement on its Facebook page, that "in the personal and public social media pages, during the past few days, news circulated about a strange phenomenon that occurred in Alexandria during the state of instability that it experienced."

The western phenomenon, according to the statement, is "the fall of a quantity of water at once from the giant clouds that formed there, which is not like the usual rain."

The authority did not specify its location in Alexandria, but according to the circulating clip of the phenomenon, it shows that these rains fell vertically in the sea water close to a relative of the sand of one of the beaches in the city.

She explained that this phenomenon is known as "wetting, which rarely occurs, but it occurred in Alexandria due to the giant cumulus clouds that affected it and were accompanied by heavy rain."

She added: "The raindrop phenomenon can be defined as the phenomenon of water emptying from the cloud and falling as a single mass, so the rain falls perpendicular to a specific area and not in a scattered manner."

She pointed out that "a small eruption may also bring rain with it, and it is often called a rain bomb, and this is what we witnessed."

Alexandria witnessed unprecedented weather last week, which led to the flooding of streets with rainwater, and they are threatened with inundation, according to a statement this month by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, amid Egyptian confirmation of the implementation of projects to counter this for years.

Johnson said at an international conference on climate change, early this month, that "a rise of only 4 degrees (will make us) say goodbye to entire cities (namely) Miami (the US), Alexandria (Egypt), and Shanghai (China), adding: "All of them will sink under the water."

In a related context, Major General Mahmoud Nafeh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Governorate Sanitary Sewage Company, said, on Saturday, in a press conference, that "Alexandria witnessed 9 million cubic meters of rain, which exceeds the capacity of its sewage networks, which reaches two million cubic meters per day."

He stressed that "there are 6 major sewage projects currently in Alexandria to eliminate hot spots, and there are projects that will be completed next June," according to the (private) daily Youm7 newspaper.

Before the latest crisis, the Governor of Alexandria, Major General Mohamed Al-Sharif, said that "the city has been subjected to major torrential rains and floods since 2015, and it increases every year and leads to strong waves with the nucleus (storms)."