Giant Hailstone - How big can they get?

robbieray · 17-06-2010, 11:38 AM

Last week on June 9th there was a huge hail storm in France producing hail the size of tennis balls.

Pictured is a person holding bits of hail in the eastern French city of Montbeliard following a violent storm, which damaged several roofs and more than 1,000 cars.

Hail formation is like having a large lottery machine in the sky that's spinning out of control, but instead of pingpong balls flying out of it, chunks of ice are being spit out at a dangerous speed.

The process is comparable to a lottery machine because the developing chunks of hail rise and fall within the thunderstorm like pingpong balls inside of a lottery machine. The difference is that they grow as they rise and fall, and at the end of the game, there are no winners.

The initial piece of hail forms when supercooled water (water at temperatures below freezing) freezes on a condensation nuclei (such as a piece of dust) high in the atmosphere. The ice begins to fall toward the ground, as you might expect on a planet with gravity.

So what do you think? Have you ever come across hailstone this large before?

Rick