Hail

Corn Crop after hail storm

On November third two thousand and ten, there were reports of hail damage in the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas.  Hail has caused one billion dollars of damage for property and crops each year in the United States.  At times a piece of hail can be as big as a baseball. On April 10, 2001 Kansas City had a hail storm, which cost United States $2 billion for the damage. A small hail storm can damage the plants even though people may think it is not important. U.S. hail is most common in the area where Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming meet, known as "Hail Alley." Parts of this region average between seven and nine hail days a year.

   

 

Hail is formed in huge cumulonimbus clouds, commonly known as thunderheads. The development of hail starts inside a thunderstorm. Where there are strong updrafts of warm air and downdrafts of cold air. If water droplets are present the can be carried to the freezing level with temperatures that reach below 32F and the droplets will freeze. The frozen droplets are carried by the cold downdrafts and as it travels downward it may melt into warmer air toward the bottom of the thunderstorm. A repetition of the frozen droplet being carried up by an updraft and taken to the freezing level will add another layer of ice which creates HAIL. With the several layers the ice, the hail fall to the ground.

The size of hail is not so different from a raindrop. Mostly hail is 2inches in diameter or less. The largest hailstone fell on June 23, 2003 in Aurora, Nebraska and had a diameter of  7.0 inches, a circumference of 18.75 inches, and weighed just under 1 lb. The heaviest hailstone fell in Coffeeville, Kansas on September3, 1970 and weighed 1.67 lbs.  It had a diameter of 5.7 inches and a circumference of 17.5 inches.