The Philadelphia Fox Affiliate’s Tuesday headline “Snow reported at Philadelphia International Airport in the middle of July: NWS” leans heavily on the fact that the National Weather Service does for some goddamned reason count accumulation of hail dropped by a thunderstorm as “snow.”
“It appears Philadelphia took ‘Christmas in July’ a little too seriously this year! As temperatures hit a high of 94 degrees on Sunday, a record daily snowfall was reported at the Philadelphia International Airport. The National Weather Service says thunderstorms produced small hail, which counts as a trace of snow!” Fox 29 wrote, adding the exclamation to emphasize the technical truth.
They didn’t actually print what the accumulation was or why the federal government’s meteorology agency classifies two distinct forms of precipitation as the same. Try building a “hailman” or catching a golfball-sized “hailflake” on your tongue if you think they’re so goddamned similar.