hail
Sign in to savethumb|A large hailstone, about in diameter
AI overview
Hail is a type of precipitation that forms as hard pellets or balls of ice falling from thunderstorms, and the image shows an example of a notably large hailstone. Hail matters because large hailstones can cause significant damage to crops, property, and vehicles, making it an important weather hazard to monitor and understand.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
17 sectionsContents
- Definition
- Formation
- Layer nature of the hailstones
- Factors favoring hail
- Scientific study
- Climatology
- Short-term detection
- Size and terminal velocity
- Size comparisons to objects
- Hail records
- Hazards
- Accumulations
- Suppression and prevention
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|A large hailstone, about in diameter
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets generally fall in cold weather, while hail growth is greatly inhibited during low surface temperatures.