How Does Hail vs Snow: Everything You Need to Know [ID1007] Work?

Hail and snow are both ice things that fall from the sky, but they act differently.

Imagine you're playing with building blocks in a room full of bouncing balls, that's like how hail is made. Inside a cloud, water droplets bounce around in the air and freeze, adding more layers to each other like stacking blocks. These frozen balls grow bigger until they’re too heavy to stay up high anymore, then hail falls down to Earth.

Now imagine it’s winter time, and you're outside breathing on a cold window, that's like how snow is made. Tiny ice crystals in the sky clump together, forming fluffy groups that fall gently as snowflakes. Snow feels soft and light because each flake has lots of tiny air pockets inside.

• Hail is hard and bumpy, like a rock you find at the bottom of your sandbox.
• Snow is soft and powdery, like sugar that melts slowly in your hot chocolate.

Both are fun, but they fall from the sky in different ways, just like how you can run or walk to get somewhere.