How does hail form? | Severe Weather Month?

Hail is like little ice balls that form inside thunderstorms and fall from the sky.

Imagine you're playing with a ball in a really big freezer, that's kind of what happens with hail. Inside a thunderstorm, there are clouds full of water droplets. When these droplets get chilled up high, they turn into ice.

Now picture this: the ice is like your ball, and it gets tossed around inside the storm like you're playing catch in a freezer. Each time it goes up, it gets more ice layers, kind of like wrapping your ball in bubble wrap.

If the storm keeps tossing the ice around, it grows bigger and bigger, just like your ball would get bigger if you kept adding layers to it. Eventually, the hailball is too heavy to stay in the sky, so it falls down to Earth.

Sometimes, a big hailstorm can drop these icy balls right on your head! It’s like being hit with a bunch of tiny ice cubes from the sky, fun, but maybe a little chilly.