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A piece of hail, or a hailstone, starts off as a small drop of water that is in a cloud. The drop gets blown deep into the cloud where it collects even more water drops that are extremely cold. These drops are supercooled - their temperature is below freezing but they are still liquid water instead of ice. All of these drops come together to make a hailstone that bounces around the cloud collecting more and more drops until it falls through the cloud and to Earth. Hailstones can reach speeds of 90mph and can be several centimeters wide! Due to their size and speed, they can damage cars, houses, and other things on Earth.
OTHER FACTS!
- People might associate hail with winter due to the ice, but hail often comes with strong thunderstorms seen in the spring or summer. Thunderstorms have strong winds that are required for hailstones to form.
- The largest hailstone recorded in the United States fell in South Dakota in 2010. It was 8 inches across and weighed almost 2 pounds!
- The state with the most 1-inch-plus hailstorms is Oklahoma, particularly in the middle of the state. South Dakota is second and northern Texas is third.
- Hailstones have layers that give scientists information about their development, just like the rings of a tree! Layers that have clear ice tell scientists that the ice froze slowly, and no air was trapped. On the other hand, white, cloudy, or bubbly layers tell scientists that the ice froze very quickly, trapping air bubbles inside.
- Scientists and weather reporters like to compare hailstones to other round objects so that people can understand how big or small they are. The common comparisons are peas, dimes, quarters, golf balls, and for particularly big hailstones, softballs!
