First of
all…WHAT IS HAIL???!!!
Hail is a rainfall of
ice pellets with diameters about five millimeters or more. Below that size, the
pellets are defined as snow. Hail pellets can grow to be much bigger than the
minimum: they can exceed ten centimeters in diameter - the size of a grapefruit.
It’s created in
the center of thunderstorms like so: water vapor in warm, rapidly rising air
masses condenses to become water at higher, cooler altitudes. This normally
produces heavy showers. However, when the vapor or water is pushed up enough to
meet cold enough air, the object can become ice. Then, layers and layers of ice
then form around minute specks like dust picked up from the ground. The center
increase in size as more water freezes to their surfaces. Then when the pellets are too heavy for the rising
air currents, they fall as hail. They
may pick up more water on the way down, becoming larger, heavier and more
imperiling.
http://cgdi.gc.ca/ccatlas/hazardnet/f_hail/hailintro.htm