weather
 






 

Question by  onecrore (196)

How can it hail when it is warm?

Yesterday we had a quick but powerful hailstorm, but it was quite warm outside. The hailstones melted quickly after hitting the ground, but how did they even form in the first place? Hail makes sense when it is cold outside, but how can their be hail in the summer!

 
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Answer by  DulceDeLeche (219)

Rain clouds form at high altitudes, and the weather up there is much different than it is on the ground. So even if its warm where you are, it could be well below freezing at cloud-level. The hail forms at high elevation and falls fast, so it doesnt melt.

 
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Answer by  sherryk (621)

Sorry, just realized I mis-read your question. Thought you asked IF it was possible to hail when it is warm outside. It was recently discovered that hail forms around microscopic germs in the cold upper atmosphere. It gets tossed around as ice layers form and then falls downward to earth.

 
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Answer by  dr84bhl (2789)

It hails when it is warm because of cooler air moving into the area. When the warm air and cold air collide and come together this is when you get thunderstorms and hail, the water from the clouds is cooled down so much it turns to hail. The fresher cooler air moves in.

 
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Answer by  AJ (112)

While it may be warm near the ground where we live, hailstones form high in the atmosphere where it is well below freezing. Hail forms in powerful updrafts of thunderstorms, which can go as high as about 50,000 feet, where the small bits of ice can grow larger.

 
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Answer by  sherryk (621)

Absolutely. We had hail the other day and it was warm outside! There was a big storm and the cold air mass above met the warm air mass below, and it hailed. Afterwards, it was much cooler outside.

 
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Answer by  Shishimai (35)

'Cause it's much colder 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000 feet above the earth. The hail we see often starts out much larger and shrinks (melts) as it gets closer to the warmer earth. 5th grade Science 101, my friend.

 
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Answer by  Chris (71)

Hail forms when a cold front meets a warm front. The cold air from the cold front rose. As it did so, the precipitation that formed was frozen, and remained so all the way to the ground. The hail formed where the air was much cooler than the surface temperature.

 
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Answer by  RandallGollihue (23)

Well hail forms in the clouds, just like rain. It's colder in the clouds and even though it may be warm on the ground, it may be colder in the clouds. They can form as hail and fall in the form of hail. They melt due to heat.

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

it needs to hail because the water droplets and ice are caught in the quick updraft in a storm, they move around through the colder cloudtop is to add layers and layers on the ice, the hailstones is heavy enough to fall on the earth.

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

hail can move through up and down winds of repeating layers of ice comes out the cloud

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

Hail forms in the upper atmosphere is cold enough to form there.

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

as the winds toss particles up and down inside the cloud, it adds many ice and the larger hailstone is, if no longer support it and falls to the ground as hail.

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

inside the huge cumulonimbus clouds reach the height gives freezing level was dashed across the mid level cloud

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

hail can grow by ice was cycled in flowing up and down winds in a large thunderstorm, the ice maybe covered in water and freezes around the hail core, then it gets bigger enough to fall out on the earth.

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

Hail just formed in the high clouds that temperature aloft is well below freezing.

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

Hail determines the thunderstorm's severity, it formed in layers of supercooled water that is caught in the strong ascending air in the higher atmosphere

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

Hail is rounded, hard balls of ice that falls from violent thunderstorms

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

if it's warm enough on the ground and front moves in! we got hail

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

Hail created by collecting and freezing the drops being carried up and down in a severe thunderstorm

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

little hail gets pushed aloft many times in the cloud to damp more water onto it to make the hailstones bigger and bigger until it pass over the updraft and falls down to the earth

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

if the water coated stones fall on the updraft and re-enters to a cold upper portion of the storm, it collects much layers of ice and hailstone is larger, when it get's too heavy to blow them back up and fall to the ground.

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

Hail repeats the collection of frozen water in clouds, it adds more ice as they went up and down in a major thunderstorms.

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

Hail have layers formed by the vertical motion in clouds

 
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Answer by  Anonymous

Hail starts as upper clouds that is much colder to form it, these ice pieces will collect other drops to accumulate as it cycles through up and downdrafts, it gets large enough to fall towards the ground

 
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