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What is hail? |
Weather
Hail is a weird type of weather where balls or chunks of ice actually fall from the sky! Luckily it’s not too common because falling ice can cause a lot of damage.
A few different things need to happen in order for it to hail. First you need a big cloud that’s ready to release its water, just like it would when it rains. The second thing you need is a really cold sky to freeze that water. The third thing you need is strong wind that pushes air upward. These gusts of wind are called updrafts.
Normally when frozen water falls to the ground, it’s in a form like snow or sleet, but because of the updrafts, frozen water gets blown back up into the clouds where it collects more water, freezes, and falls again. That bigger ball of ice might get blown back up to collect even more water! It could happen again and again, until eventually, the ball of ice gets too heavy for the wind to blow back up. It falls to the ground as hail!
To be considered hail, a ball of ice will normally have to be between 0.2 and 4 inches wide. Although, hail as big as 6 inches wide has been seen during some thunderstorms in the Midwestern United States.
Now that you’ve learned about hail, think about all the other forms of water that can fall from the sky. Draw pictures of all the types you can think of.
How does a snowflake look different than ball of hail? How does a raindrop look different than those? There are lots of different ways water can fall from clouds. It all depends on what the rest of the weather is doing!
