Description given on Youtube:
OH HAIL NO! We have one HAIL of a word for you this week. It comes from Andrew Sitrin, who wants to know what hail is. So – let’s find out what the hail is going on.
I’m Storm Shield Meteorologist Jason Meyers, and hail is precipitation in the form of balls or irregular lumps of ice formed when liquid precipitation freezes, adding layers of ice as it is lifted and cooled within a thunderstorm.
All thunderstorms have an updraft and a downdraft. Hail forms when that updraft is strong enough to lift raindrops high enough into the storm where they freeze, then begin to fall again before being lifted high into the cloud. This process repeats itself until the hail stone becomes too heavy to be lifted again.
That’s why hail stones appear layered when you cut into them, and the stronger the storm and its updraft, the larger the hail.
In the United States, hail is considered severe when it reaches one inch in diameter or larger. The biggest hail stone on record fell in South Dakota on July 23, 2010 and measured a whopping 8 inches in diameter.
Most hail is much smaller than that record-breaker, but it can still do significant damage, and it causes about a billion dollars in property and crop damages every year.
Is there a weather word you’d like to know? Then what the hail are you waiting on?! Leave it in the comments below, tweet me, or send me a message on Storm Shield’s Facebook page! And while you’re at it, like this video and subscribe to the channel.
See you next week!
#WWOTW
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