Hail

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For other uses, see Hail (disambiguation).

Large hailstone with concentric rings

Part of the Nature series on

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Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Unlike graupel, which is made ofrime, and ice pellets, which are smaller and translucent, hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between 5 and 200 millimetres (0.20 and 7.9 in) in diameter.[citation needed] The METAR reporting code for hail 5 mm (0.20 in) or greater is GR, while smaller hailstones and graupel are coded GS. Hail is possible within most thunderstorms as it is produced by cumulonimbi (thunderclouds),[1] and within 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) of the parent storm. Hail formation requires environments of strong, upward motion of air with the parent thunderstorm (similar to tornadoes) and lowered heights of the freezing level. In themid-latitudes, hail forms near the interiors of continents, while in the tropics, it tends to be confined to high elevations. There are methods available to detect hail-producing thunderstorms using weather satellites and weather radar imagery. Hail stones generally fall at higher speeds as they grow in size, though complicating factors such as melting, friction with air, wind, and interaction with rain and other hail stones can slow their descent through Earth's atmosphere. Severe weather warnings are issued for hail when the stones reach a damaging size, as it can cause serious damage to human-made structures and, most commonly, farmers' crops.
Contents
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1 Definition

2 Formation

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2.1 Layer nature of the hailstones 2.2 Factors favoring hail

3 Climatology 4 Short-term detection 5 Size and terminal velocity 6 Hazards 7 Accumulations 8 Suppression and prevention 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links