The unusual incident was said to have happened for about two minutes at 6.20am.

According to Kinabalu Park assistant director Justinus Guntabid, the area where it began to snow was around Sayat-Sayat from Km7 to the top of the mountain.

“The weather in the mountain area this morning was a little colder than usual. Based on temperature records, it was around 6.9 to 12.9 degrees Celsius from 2pm to 10pm yesterday. The humidity was 52% to 62%.

“It is a bit unusual because only hail and freezing temperatures are common around the peak. What I saw this morning was snow,” he told FMT.

Justinus said that according to the records, similar incidents had occurred only twice recently – in 1975 and 1993.