A hailstorm usually occurs during the warm weather and is accompanied in many cases by thunder, lightning, and rain.
Single raindrops form very small hailstones. But an interesting thing can happen to such a raindrop. As it falls as a hailstone, it meets a strong rising current of air. So it is carried up again to the level where raindrops are falling. New drops begin to cling to the hailstone. And as it falls once more through the cold belt, these new drops spread into a layer around it and freeze, and now we have larger hailstones.
This rising and falling of the hailstone may be repeated time after time until it has added so many layers that its weight is heavy enough to overcome the force of the rising current of air. Now it falls to the ground. In these way hailstones measuring 8 to 10 centimeters in diameter and weighing as much as 450 grams are sometimes built up. Snow too freezes around hailstones when they are carried into regions where it is forming. So the hailstones are frequently made up of layers of ice and snow.
Frozen rain is sometimes called hail, but it is really "sleet"' And soft hail which sometimes falls in winter is only a form of snow.
Single raindrops form very small hailstones. But an interesting thing can happen to such a raindrop. As it falls as a hailstone, it meets a strong rising current of air. So it is carried up again to the level where raindrops are falling. New drops begin to cling to the hailstone. And as it falls once more through the cold belt, these new drops spread into a layer around it and freeze, and now we have larger hailstones.
This rising and falling of the hailstone may be repeated time after time until it has added so many layers that its weight is heavy enough to overcome the force of the rising current of air. Now it falls to the ground. In these way hailstones measuring 8 to 10 centimeters in diameter and weighing as much as 450 grams are sometimes built up. Snow too freezes around hailstones when they are carried into regions where it is forming. So the hailstones are frequently made up of layers of ice and snow.
Frozen rain is sometimes called hail, but it is really "sleet"' And soft hail which sometimes falls in winter is only a form of snow.
