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Many people have skilled these scorching summer time days which begin off with sunshine, earlier than towering cumulonimbus clouds bubble up via the day, ultimately bringing thunder, lightning and torrential downpours. In some situations, these thunderous clouds may also ship hail – small balls of ice that fall to the bottom. However how does hail type?
When clouds attain the dizzy heights of cumulonimbus standing, their peaks can ascend to 10-15km within the sky. By this level, they aren’t full of simply ice crystals, but additionally supercooled water droplets; water nonetheless in liquid type, regardless of its temperature being beneath freezing.
Inside cumulonimbus clouds, the air could be very turbulent – shifting up and down, inflicting updraughts and downdraughts, that are sturdy sufficient to bounce ice crystals round contained in the cloud. As these ice crystals transfer round, they collect additional layers of ice, permitting a hailstone to type and develop.
To not be tried at dwelling, however for those who sliced a hailstone down the center, it could have concentric rings like a tree, denoting every layer of ice gathered on its journey.
For so long as the updraughts and downdraughts are sturdy sufficient to hold the hail, it can stay contained in the cloud and proceed to get greater. Nevertheless, when the hail turns into heavy sufficient, updraughts can’t maintain it up anymore, and it falls to the bottom.
So how does the ball of ice handle to make it to the floor with out melting, when summer time air temperatures could be within the vary of 25 to 30°C? The reply is the pace at which it falls. Small hailstones usually fall to the bottom at a pace of 15-40km/h. This speedy descent signifies that the ice doesn’t have sufficient time to soften earlier than reaching the floor.
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Requested by: Lara Eaton, Manchester
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