Deadly But Beautiful Hail and Ice Storms
Hailstones, or ice storms are common all over the world. Their severity depends on climate and season but their effects can be very damaging.
Street damage after hailstorm
Image via Wikipedia
Hailstones vary in size but scientists have found a formula that measures the speed at which they fall.
Image via Wikipedia
√dx54= speed in mph (using inches and miles per hour)
So, if a hailstone has a diameter of 4 cms, then it will fall at a speed of 108mph.
Hailclouds have a characteristic dark greeny-black colouration.
Image via Wikipedia
Of course 4cms for a hailstone is considered very small in some areas. These are lumps of frozen ice that form in cumulonimbi, or thunderclouds, on the leading edge of a storm system.
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
Normally hailstones are between 5 millimetres and 15 centimetres, or 6 inches in diameter. A 6 inch hailstone falls at a speed of about 128mph. That is one heck of a speed at which to come into contact with one of these things. Imagine the damage to a car windscreen, or to yourself.
The largest hailstone ever record measured 17.8 centimetres, about 7 inches in diameter.This huge lump of ice weighed 1.67 pounds.
Every year the US alone gets around 15,000 pounds of hail throw at it This costs millions of dollars in damage annually. Here in UK damage from hailstorms is less frequent but seems to have been increasing over the past couple of years because of the effects of climate change.
Scientists are looking at ways of breaking up hailstones to reduce the damage they can do to vehicles, property and crops. Currently experiments are being carried out which utilise sonar pulses to break up the stones in much the same way as they are used to break down kidney stones during medical treatments.
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11 Responses to “Deadly But Beautiful Hail and Ice Storms”
On April 13, 2009 at 2:06 am
An interesting and informative article, Louie.
On April 13, 2009 at 5:24 am
An interesting read. I didn’t realise hailstones could be as much 15 cm in diameter. I got caught in a hailstorm where the hailstones were the size of golf balls and they marked the car.
Godd research.
Christine
On April 13, 2009 at 6:28 am
Excellent interesting stuff x
On April 13, 2009 at 6:32 am
What a great write and pics Louie. Our daughter had a hail storm about a year ago it did a lot of damage all over the area.
On April 13, 2009 at 7:09 am
We get a lot of hail storms in the winter here in the hills of Cyprus, 2yrs ago a lot of damage was done as they were so large. Interesting and informative article.
On April 13, 2009 at 5:20 pm
this may sound a bit morbid, but, not really, but whenever there is an ice storm it reminds me of my uncle vern because the day before he was buried there was one and then the next day it was sun shiny and the ice was beautiful on everything!! But, yes they are very scary things
On April 13, 2009 at 7:13 pm
nice article,camed down like the where I live
On April 13, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Interesting…and some of these pics look a little too familiar. But devastating as ice out of the sky can be, I’m not sure that tampering with the weather might not be worse.
On April 14, 2009 at 1:53 am
Interesting article.
Inna
On April 16, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Cool article – blogged at the usual place!
http://www.webphemera.com
On April 16, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Interesting read.
Thanks for sharing,
-Resounding Glass
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