Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. [1] It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. [2] It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. [3] Ice pellets generally fall in cold weather, while hail growth is greatly inhibited during low surface temperatures.
As the hailstone ascends it passes into areas of the cloud where the concentration of humidity and supercooled water droplets varies. The hailstone's growth rate changes depending on the variation in humidity and supercooled water droplets that it encounters. The accretion rate of these water droplets is another factor in the hailstone's growth.
Ice particles can have a significant effect on cloud dynamics. They are known to be important in the processes by which clouds can become electrified, which causes lightning. They are also known to be able to form the seeds for rain droplets. It has become clear that the concentration of ice nucleating particles in shallow clouds is a key ...
A hailstone that fell in Vivian, South Dakota, on July 23, 2010, holds the United States record for the largest size with a diameter of 8 inches and heaviest weight at 1.94 pounds.
Storm trackers in the Texas Panhandle recovered a massive hail stone that researchers say is likely to be a new state record. Val and Amy Castor, veteran storm chasers with Oklahoma City ...
The hailstone then may undergo 'wet growth', where the liquid outer shell collects other smaller hailstones. [41] The hailstone gains an ice layer and grows increasingly larger with each ascent. Once a hailstone becomes too heavy to be supported by the storm's updraft, it falls from the cloud. [42]
Clouds form as relatively warmer air, carrying moisture, rises within cooler air. The moist air rises, and, as it does so, it cools and some of the water vapor in that rising air condenses . [ 10 ] When the moisture condenses, it releases energy known as latent heat of condensation, which allows the rising packet of air to cool less than the ...
Clouds form when the dew point temperature of water is reached in the presence of condensation nuclei in the troposphere. The atmosphere is a dynamic system, and the local conditions of turbulence, uplift, and other parameters give rise to many types of clouds. Various types of cloud occur frequently enough to have been categorized.