The photographs that emerged from western Mexico on Sunday looked more like scenes from a post-apocalyptic movie than an image of the last day of June: hills of white hailstones piled up on the streets, swallowing cars and blanketing the city in a jarring layer of ice.

The hail, which accumulated up to three feet high in some parts of Jalisco State on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, baffled the authorities who tried to find a way to clean up the icy mess.