Why Is Hail Getting So Big?

[Todd Lemery]

I’m really curious about how big the biggest hailstone ever really was. The biggest tornado ever was never going to get by with nobody knowing about it, but the biggest hailstones were extremely likely to never have been found. With more people gathering around big storms nowadays we have a chance to get a better look at what the upper limits they can achieve may be.

 

[Sean Ramsey]

I would almost expect gorilla hail size occurrences and reports to increase simply due to storms being documented more than ever before. In the past, you'd mostly have localized reports where it occurred and did damage, whereas almost every single storm these days has someone there to possibly experience it, or at the very least move in quickly after it's fallen to the ground.

"Hailstorms are Causing Billions in Damage, Scientists are Studying Why it Happens" - I'll save them some time by saying that it could have something to do with the extensive development of land that isn't shrinking. Big hailstorms falling on open prairie doesn't cost as much.

 

[Randy Zipser]

All great stuff above; thanks for sharing it!

Something that is very little reported (except, perhaps, in very localized newspapers (if those even exist anymore) or in local social media?) are incidents of cattle or other farm/ranch animals being killed due to being struck with large hail. Even in the early days of storm chasing, I do not recall seeing anything or hearing any stories about that topic.

Animals that live out on the open range have evolved enough "survival instinct" to protect themselves from dangerous weather situations, even though they do not have the intellect or reasoning skills that humans do. However, I've observed that their behavior is similar to what a human would do if no shelter of any kind was available: get as low to the ground as possible and curl-up to protect vital organs (particularly the head) and the young. I think this is the reason that adult cattle huddle together in a tight circle, standing upright, to protect their calves lying on the ground beneath. They also have an amazing sense of where (what direction?) the hailstorm is approaching from, and face their tail-ends into that direction, so as to protect their eyes and heads. I wonder how many tornado chasers notice things like that?

I've seen this same behavior in ranch cattle while living in both Oklahoma and Kansas, so it must be a natural instinct. I have read about cattle being killed more by lightning, but this is relatively rare, even in Florida where CG lightning is very frequent in the summer "sea-breeze front" months (June through September).

 

[Dan Robinson]

Thanks James! Those bigger ones are pretty resistant to melting for about 60 seconds at a time if they’ve been stored in a freezer or with dry ice. There’s usually enough time to get a few shots in before they begin melting. I keep them sealed in ziplock bags as they will sublimate and collect frost if left exposed.

I built a photo setup with a high-powered LED work light behind black plastic sheeting, with a 1” hole cut to get some high-res detail shots. Although I hated to do it, I sawed a couple of them in half to get cutaway shots (not the biggest ones).



Here is the result:

Giant Hail near Taylor, Nebraska :: High-Resolution Photography by Dan Robinson

Stock photography of hailstones from severe thunderstorms.

stormhighway.com

 

[James K]

Good thread. Interesting to read through.
Love the photos with that setup you made Dan. Great job!

I've always been amazed at those photos you see online or in the news of huge hail - both because of the size, and the wild shapes some take on.

Used to be *to me / for where I live* , 1" was what I considered "big", after living in the same general location for decades, that's the largest I'd ever seen in person. Then came 2023, and now biggest I've ever seen in person is 2" & that was pretty impressive to see (my area got the hailcore of that storm that ended up producing a tornado in Highlands Ranch CO a couple years ago)

 

[Boris Konon]

I have a technically 6" hailstone from Taylor, Nebraska on May 29. 2022 (really a 4.5" stone with a 1.5" spike):



I think hail like this is more common than most think. It is rare for me (and probably most chasers) to encounter giant hail like this just because we normally don't venture into the parts of supercells where it usually is (vault region). If you are after tornadoes you can see, you stay mostly east and south of that area. In the Taylor case, the storm was behind a cold front with a low tornado risk, so I decided to go hail hunting after 4"+ stones were reported. I used to take a hail cooler stocked with dry ice on every Plains trip. I still have all of these in my freezer.

From what I had seen, spikes on hailstones are counted as part of total size, even if it doesn't really qualify as a true diameter. The first pix above I agree is a rather exceptional case w/ a 2" long quite narrow spike, and it's actually a 6.5" stone. How it managed to keep such a narrow protrusion upon impact is amazing considering the free-fall velocity of such a mass!

I went back and checked the SPC storm reports for 5/29/22. The max hail size report in the CSV file is 4.25", but the remark section says 6" reported by a storm chaser. So I looked at NCEI's Storm Data for the official word, and indeed, a 6" hailstone is in the record as falling 11 mi NE of Almeria NE on 5/29/22, so I will update my 6" or more hailstone list!

 

[William Monfredo]

...killed due to being struck with large hail...

March 28, 2000... Fort Worth, TX tornado-day, human fatality due to hailstone hit.
Why is hail getting so small to me? Because I now avoid it like the white plague!

 

[Warren Faidley]

I'm not so sure hail has gotten larger. There are a lot more people out there chasing / reporting and recording hail via cell phones and social media. When Tom and I encountered softball hail near the KS / CO border in the late 80's, there was a sheriff officer asking for emergency assistance because this roof was being pounded down to the seat levels. He apparently crawled into the back seat. I spent a lot of time looking for that vehicle.

 

[Rick Schmidt]

On the day of the Sitka tornado in 1999, I picked up softball hail in the ditch, and took pics of it. That was only the second time I had ever seen hail that large.

 

[William Monfredo]

Nowhere does the article indicate hail is actually getting bigger...

That's good news, hail's not getting bigger, certainly no evidence for that; thanks for bringing that important point up.

The bad news, the smaller the hail, the more spatially dense the hail-fall pattern. That is...
Big stones fall more widely spaced out, but lesser-sized ones will strip much more of your garden & yield extra damage areas on your vehicle.

All it takes...golfball- and walnut- sized hailstones, call it what you will; it will provide inconvenience for you as you have to wait for repairs.