Residents of Moscow and its suburbs have been releasing photos of Tuesday’s storm on social media.
Wind speeds reached almost 20 meters per second, Moscow meteorological services said.
About 20 planes were unable to land at Moscow airports on Tuesday due to poor weather conditions, sources told Interfax.
“This is superhail! [They look like] golf balls! From Russia with love!” wrote one Instagram user. Another added: “The weather is dangerous this summer.”
Users were adding and #farewellsummer #autumn2016 hashtags to ‘mourn’ summer which struck with such aggressive weather phenomena. Others posted #apocalypse and #abnormally hashtags, referring to decades-old daily precipitation records which have been shown this summer in Moscow.
Surprised commenters reported that some cars were damaged in the hail.
Powerful thunderstorms and showers have regularly hit Moscow this summer. The rainfall broke the all-time single-day precipitation high mark dating back to 1970, as parts of Moscow suffered the heaviest rains since records began.
