Heavy rain and hail pound parts of city

Strong thunderstorms rolled through Cuenca Tuesday afternoon, flooding several low-lying neighborhoods and dropping more than an inch of hail in some locations.

Hail covers the lawn at a Cuenca playground Tuesday afternoon. (El Tiempo)

The flooding affected streets in the Kennedy, Ochoa León, Paramarca and Ricaurte sectors and caused minor damage to several houses, according to Cuenca EMT personnel. Several streets were briefly closed due to landslides.

The national meteorological institute said that thunderstorms are rare in November but said that the weather has been “generally unseasonable” since September. “Historically, this is the drier, sunnier time of year in Cuenca but this year has been the exception,” an institute Tweet reported.

According to public utility company ETAPA, Tuesday’s storms had little affect on the city rivers due to their short duration. “Because we expect more rain, we always caution residents to stay away from river banks during storms,” a spokesman said.

The weather station at the Cuenca airport reported 24 millimeters (about one inch) of rain on Tuesday.