What is the Cause of Hail?
What is Hail
To put it simply, hail is very devastating extreme weather. Although tornadoes get more attention, hail is also responsible for a lot of damage every year. The size and form variability of hail stones increases the potential for extensive property damage. Hail is a common component of thunderstorms and is often present in conjunction with high wind gusts and tornadoes.
The updrafts in a thunderstorm may carry rain beyond the freezing threshold, causing it to condense into hail stones. Once hailstones have enough mass that the airstream cannot carry, they drop to the earth.
While hail is formed in most thunderstorms, it does not always drop to the earth as hail. The warmer regions of the atmosphere close to the ground are responsible for the melting of tiny hailstones. Hailstones must develop big enough in the thunderstorms before dropping through the warmer lower atmosphere and eventually reaching the ground. Large hailstones often need the same conditions as tornadic storms, including low-level humidity, lift, atmospheric instabilities, and wind shear, for them to fall to the ground.
Hail Formation
When a water droplet is lifted by an updraft in a thunderstorm and falls back to Earth at a higher altitude, it freezes into hail. Extremely cold water or water vapor accretes onto the frozen droplet and solidifies. When this happens, a hailstone forms.
Sometimes sleet is mistaken for hail and vice versa. Sleet occurs throughout the colder months but never during a thunderstorm. Hail, on the other hand, is only produced in thunderstorms, as freezing raindrops are forced upwards by the storm’s updrafts.
Hailstones often take on a ringed look. The rings represent the updraft that the hailstone travels through. A white or transparent covering develops on the hailstone when exposed to an atmosphere composed mostly of water vapor. This happens because the freezing process traps tiny pockets of air between the vapor particles. Since super-cooled water freezes instantly to a hailstone, a transparent layer emerges when the hailstone is immersed in such an environment.
Wet growth refers to the mechanism through which hailstones expand by adhering to one another. Larger hailstones will climb in the airstream at a slower pace than relatively small hailstones. Hailstones may attach if their outer covering has not entirely frozen. If this process continues again, a hailstone may develop quite fast. When these aggregating hailstones strike the ground, they frequently have a rough or spiky look, as the tiny hailstones that form the bigger hailstone preserve their distinct forms.
Devastation Caused by Hail
Extreme damage to crops and buildings may be caused by hail. Hailstones do greater harm to whatever they impact because their terminal velocity, or fastest potential speed, rises proportionally with their size. Hailstones the size of baseballs may travel up to 70 miles/hour on their way to the earth. On the other hand, larger hailstones may travel at velocities of up to 100 miles/hour. It’s the same as being struck by a fastball from the Major Leagues!
- Plant Failure
Hail storms may be devastating to crops. In the case of a severe hailstorm, small crops like wheat and rice may suffer considerable output losses. Generally speaking, corn crops in the early to medium stages of development may bounce back from hail shock, but older plants are more vulnerable to harm. Hail may rip off plant leaves and topple stalks, which can be fatal for a plant. When hail threatens a farmer’s crop, they may choose to get crop insurance as financial protection against potential production losses.
- Injury to Property
In addition to tornadoes, hail may be a significant risk to the property. Dents in an automobile’s metal sheet are frequently the first sign of trouble. Hail may easily fracture and shatter sunroofs, moon roofs, and windshields, posing a safety risk to everyone within the car. Hail is a significant threat to roof shingles. Hailstones of sufficient size may even penetrate roofs and enter homes. Hail thrown by the wind may shatter glass and rip the siding off of buildings. All of this wear and tear necessitates expensive maintenance and new purchases. Hail has caused about $50 billion in damage to property in the United States since 1949 when adjusted for inflation. This amounts to an annual average of more than $850,000,000 in damages caused by hail.
Hail Canopy
Fearful of the impending hail? Can you tell me whether you’re a vehicle salesperson or if you spend the whole summer watching the forecast? Spend more time fretting about hail than moving automobiles, please.
Then you may be on the lookout for cost-effective, discreet hail protection. Something that allows light to pass through is spotless and won’t distract from your company’s display area.
The WeatherSolve team, headquartered in Langley, British Columbia, but serving clients worldwide, has created an innovative line of temporary and permanent hail canopies designed with car lots in mind.
Our solutions are tailored to your specific needs. Thus, you have a response that: –
- It is suitable for your geographic area, allowing your site to continue functioning as intended.
- To be prepared for every weather, it should be tailored to your local conditions (ice, snow, wind, corrosiveness, etc.).
- It is cost-effectively designed to provide a high level of command with little outlay of resources.
This is possible because of WeatherSolve’s huge database of information gleaned over 40 years, 7 continents, and countless acres of hail canopies, as well as its novel concepts, rigorous testing, and global real-world experience.
To get started, we often only need to know where to find you and a little bit about what elements of your yard are most important to you.
About WeatherSolve
Commercial, sporting, and agrarian climate control buildings are the focus of WeatherSolve Structures Inc.’s design and production efforts. Hurricane Andrew (Florida, 1992), cyclones in the South Pacific, and the Andes Mountains in South America have all been used as testing grounds for their designs (at 16,000 ft). WeatherSolve is pleased to announce that their products may now be found in use on every continent (including Antarctica)
B-Corporation Certification
As a B-Corporation, WeatherSolve is a source of great pride for the company. Third-party certification ensures businesses are accountable, transparent, and deliver on their social and environmental sustainability promises.
