It’s raining buckets of ice in Abuja, Nigeria’s moneyed and usually scalding capital city, and residents are basking in the euphoria of it all.

“Hailstorm in Abuja. Been picking Ice,” tweeted Lami Apejoye excitedly. 

“It just rained hailstones in Abuja and it was a vibe,” Chuba Ezekwesili shared with barely concealed glee. 

His twin, Chine Ezekwesili, would quote the tweet with the words: “vibes on vibes. Hello hail.”

There have been similar tweets.

Hailstones are pellets of frozen rain oozing from cumulonimbus clouds. 

Hailstones are not common sights in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous city with a tropical climate typical of most of the continent, although residents of the hilly, temperate state of Plateau and neighboring communities, would stridently disagree.