Hail is precipitation in the form of a chunk of ice that can fall from a cumulonimbus cloud. Usually associated with multicell, supercell and cold front induced squall line thunderstorms, most hail falls from the central region of a cloud in a severe storm. Hail begins as tiny ice pellets that collide with water droplets. The optimum freezing level for the formation of hail is from 8,000 to 10,000 feet. The water droplets attach themselves to the ice pellets and begin to freeze as strong updraft winds toss the pellets and droplets back up into the colder regions of the upper levels of the cloud. As the attached droplets freeze, the pellets become larger. Both gravity and downdraft thunderstorm winds pull the pellets back down, where they encounter more droplets that attach and freeze as the pellets are thrown, once again, back up through the cloud. The more times a hailstone is tossed up and down through the cloud, the larger the hailstone will be. To create pea-sized hail (about 1/2" in diameter) winds within the thunderstorm updraft will generally be around 20 miles per hour. Quarter size hail (3/4" in diameter) requires updrafts of about 40 miles per hour. The largest hailstone ever measured in the US fell in Kansas on Sept. 3, 1970. It weighed 1.67 pds and measured 17.5" in circumference!
(information from weather.com)
I couldn't really give an answer to Bryson when he asked why God made hail but, I certainly can tell you only a mighty, all powerful God can make something like that!

5 comments:
Great pictures! Wasn't that a great storm?!?
LOVE the pics!
Yesterday morning I had just been reading in Job and in chapter 38:22 the Lord speaks about the hail. It humbled me.
Maddy looks old in that picture!
Um, why aren't you doing everyday in may?!
I can barely blog each week let alone each day!! I need to get a new post on here soon though...
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