Hailstones are the precipitation that falls from the sky in the form of a circular and or an oddly shaped lump of ice. They often can vary in size; some being only the size of a kernel; some great in size as an orange. The majority of hail stones are less than 1 inch in diameter.
In some cases those bigger hailstones can have lumps on their surface where the size has grown much larger. The hailstorm can be responsible for cracking and/or smashing windows, damaging cars, roofs, and or airplanes, as well have been known to cause injury and or even death to individuals. Every year in the US alone, millions of dollars of crop damage is done. Hail is most common in these areas; Alberta through Texas, for instance those states and provinces that have Great Plains. Other areas include Eastern Colorado, Western Nebraska, and East Wyoming. Hail has also been known to fall in Kenya, South Africa, Italy (Northern), and throughout Argentina. Hail is created in thunderstorm clouds and starts as a frozen rain drop or a small pellet of snow called a hail embryo. Although some areas that do not have Great Plains areas, can still be subject to hailstorms.
These embryos form in one location of the hailstorm and are then transferred through air waves into the major developing area of hail growth. These stones are created as the embryos that interact with super cool water droplets.
These droplets will stay liquid at below freezing temperatures. As these embryos enter through these droplets, they will hit its surface and begin to freeze. The embryo develops into a hail stone as the low temperature water (ice) begins to accumulate on this surface. If the stone stays in the hailstorm were there is a substantial amount of super cool liquid water, these stones will then become larger.
They largely get bigger when they are aided in the same cloud up-draft for a longer period of time. If they continuously drop out of the up-draft but still transferred upward by other airwaves they can also grow bigger. When the stones leave the location of up-drafts or become too dense for the airwaves to aid they then fall to the ground.
Hailstones are known to travel at the speed of 22 miles per/hr. The largest hailstones ever recorded was the one that was discovered in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1970 which had weighed 1 pound and 2/3rds.
