What is hailstorm?

A hailstorm is simply rain that turns into tiny ice balls while falling from the sky.

Imagine you are making homemade snow cones on a hot day. You scoop up fluffy white snow, but instead of eating it right away, you pack the snow tight in your hands until it becomes hard and cold. That is what happens to raindrops during a hailstorm. The air inside the clouds is very strong, acting like a giant elevator that pushes water drops up and down again and again.

As the raindrop gets pushed upward by strong winds, the super cold air freezes it into ice. Then the wind drops it down, where there is still some warm moisture around the ice ball. This sticky layer of water coats the outside before freezing again when the wind pushes the drop back up high. The drop bounces between the cold top and the wetter bottom like a ping pong ball in a machine. With every trip up and down, it gets a new layer of ice, just like peeling an onion backwards or adding layers to a sandwich.

The biggest difference is how they feel when they hit you. Rain is soft because the drops are small and light. They splash gently on your skin. Hail is hard because it is solid ice inside. If you catch hail in your hand, it feels like a cold marble. Sometimes hailstones can grow as big as golf balls or even tennis balls! When they fall, they make a loud clatter noise on the roof and driveway, sounding much more powerful than regular rain.

So next time you see gray clouds churning above, remember that tiny water drops are riding the wind elevator to become ice candies waiting to drop down for a game of catch with your house.