{"id":12185,"date":"2024-07-12T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=12185"},"modified":"2024-06-28T04:56:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T04:56:16","slug":"hail-the-size-of-golf-balls-and-even-grapefruit-the-science-of-how-tiny-ice-crystals-grow-dangerously-large","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/hail-the-size-of-golf-balls-and-even-grapefruit-the-science-of-how-tiny-ice-crystals-grow-dangerously-large\/","title":{"rendered":"Hail the size of golf balls and even grapefruit? The science of how tiny ice crystals grow dangerously large"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n \n
\n Getting hit by solid ice the size of a baseball would hurt.\n Gregory Dubus\/iStock\/Getty Images Plus<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n Brian Tang<\/a>, University at Albany, State University of New York<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Hail the size of grapefruit shattered car windows<\/a> in Johnson City, Texas. In June, 2024, a storm chaser found a hailstone almost as big as a pineapple<\/a>. Even larger hailstones have been documented in South Dakota<\/a>, Kansas and Nebraska. Hail has damaged airplanes<\/a> and even crashed through the roofs of houses.<\/p>\n\n

How do hailstones get so large, and are hailstorms getting worse?<\/p>\n\n

As an atmospheric scientist<\/a>, I study and teach about extreme weather and its risks. Here\u2019s how hail forms, how hailstorms may be changing, and some tips for staying safe.<\/p>\n\n

How does hail get so big?<\/h2>\n\n

Hail begins as tiny crystals of ice that are swept into a thunderstorm\u2019s updraft. As these ice embryos collide with supercooled water<\/a> \u2013 liquid water that has a temperature below freezing \u2013 the water freezes around each embryo, causing the embryo to grow<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"A<\/a>\n
\n A hailstone cut in half, which reveals layers of clear and cloudy ice formed as the hailstone journeyed through different parts of a thunderstorm cloud.<\/span>\n ERZ via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Supercooled water freezes at different rates, depending on the temperature of the hailstone surface, leaving layers of clear or cloudy ice as the hailstone moves around inside a thunderstorm. If you cut open a large hailstone, you can see those layers, similar to tree rings.<\/p>\n\n

The path a hailstone takes through a thunderstorm cloud, and the time it spends collecting supercooled water, dictates how large it can grow.<\/p>\n\n

Rotating, long-lived, severe thunderstorms called supercells tend to produce the largest hail<\/a>. In supercells, hailstones can be suspended for 10-15 minutes or more in strong thunderstorm updrafts, where there is ample supercooled water, before falling out of the storm due to their weight or moving out of the updraft.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"Illustration<\/a>\n
\n An illustration shows the zone of hail in a supercell thunderstorm. The hail grows above the freezing level in the thunderstorm updraft and then falls to the ground downwind, away from the updraft.<\/span>\n NOAA<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Hail is most common during spring and summer when a few key ingredients are present: warm, humid air near the surface; an unstable air mass in the middle troposphere; winds strongly changing with height; and thunderstorms triggered by a weather system.<\/p>\n\n

Larger hail, more damage<\/h2>\n\n

Hailstorms can be destructive, particularly for farms, where barrages of even small hail can beat down crops<\/a> and damage fruit<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

As hailstones get larger, their energy and force<\/a> when they strike objects increases dramatically. Baseball-sized hail falling from the sky has as much kinetic energy as a typical major league fastball. As a result, property damage \u2013 such as to roofs, siding, windows and cars \u2013 increases as hail gets larger than the size of a quarter.<\/p>\n\n

\n