My theme for my 2015 A to Z Challenge came from my
Disaster Crimes series. Disasters are a theme in each story, so it got me
thinking about all the disasters that occur from natural disasters to manmade
disasters.
Today’s
disaster is...
HAILSTORM
HAILSTORMS
are
thunderstorms that produce hailstones. Hailstones are chunks of ice that
measure between 5 millimeters and 15 centimeters (6 inches) in diameter. They
fall from storm clouds like rain and snow, but create considerable damage to
vehicles, aircrafts, buildings, and farmer’s crops. Hail also produces injuries
to people caught outside such as bruising and even concussions and fatal head
trauma in rare cases.
Hail formation requires strong, upward motion like with
tornadoes, which is why hail is often a sign that a tornado is nearby.
FACT:
Stronger storms will create larger hailstones.
Hail starts as water droplets in cumulonimbus clouds, but
when they hit below freezing temperatures in the atmosphere, they become
supercooled water and freeze.
FACT:
Clouds with a greenish coloration indicates hail.
In North America, the area where Colorado, Nebraska, and
Wyoming meet is known as “Hail Alley.” If you live in this area, hailstorms
are common. China also experiences a lot of hailstorms.
FACT: The
largest hailstone ever recorded was found in Vivian, South Dakota (United
States) on July 23, 2013, measuring 8 inches in diameter and 18.62 inches in
circumference.
QUESTION:
Have you experienced a hailstorm?
I remember them as a kid and being terrified as ice
pelted my house during a blackout.
 |
| I'm a member of Tremp's Troops! |
This reminds me of that scene in The Day After Tomorrow, with the massive hailstones. It always makes me cringe!
ReplyDeleteThe Day After Tomorrow is one of my favorite disaster movies.
DeleteWe get hail often here, but usually no bigger than marbles.
ReplyDeleteMarble-sized hail is better than golf ball-sized hail, but it could still ding up your car.
DeleteLots of hail in my life but I think the biggest I ever saw was shy of one inch across and that was only once. Far more often it is very small. Even a quarter inch and I comment on how large the hail is.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever seen a really big one. I think the biggest was maybe the size of a quarter or maybe a tad bit bigger.
DeleteWe have hailstorms at least once a winter if not more, but ours are puny compared to the ones in your post. The biggest I've seen them is small marble sized.
ReplyDeleteTasha
Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)
It's been a long time since I've had a hailstorm. There used to be one about once a week in the summer when I was a kid.
DeleteWe get hail (and HELL) here. great read once again.
ReplyDeleteYvonne.
Thanks, Yvonne.
DeleteH is for HEY, I HOPE MY INSURANCE WILL FIX THAT MESS!!
ReplyDeleteOnce, our van got pummeled by a freakish storm + hail while we were driving through Charleston, WV. I thought every piece of hail that hit was the one that was going to break the windshield. It was scary!
Haha! You're right about that! Hail can sure cause damage.
DeleteThat does sound scary. I don't recall ever being in a car while it hailed.
We tend to get tiny hail.
ReplyDeleteSo do we.
DeleteWe get tiny hail here too, but usually as I'm leaving the house. They are very painful, but not likely to cause damage like the ones in your photos!
ReplyDeleteAnnalisa, writing A-Z vignettes, at Wake Up, Eat, Write, Sleep
Tiny hail is definitely much safer.
DeleteUsed to live in Colorado and seeing cars with dents was a common occurrence. Fortunately, I wasn't hurt much, but even small hail stings.
ReplyDeleteSmall hail does sting! I've felt that before.
DeleteThat is some ridiculously large hail! I love the sound of hailstorms...as long as I'm inside, that is =)
ReplyDeleteThe sound makes me jumpy. Now rain...I like the sound of that. :)
DeleteThough I can't say I've ever been caught in a hail storm, we even get hail stones in the midwest. I've never seen any massive damage from them, but do recall seeing them lay all about the ground. So odd, especially when it does not feel cold enough to produce them. But that's weather for you.
ReplyDeleteIt is odd seeing hail on the ground. I used to always see hail in the summer. Fascinating, isn't it?
DeleteThankfully we've only had tiny hail, nothing that could kill a person like those big suckers haha
ReplyDeleteThose big suckers are deadly.
DeleteNortheast Missouri is known for many hail storms--even in winter! We got blasted a few years back. The noise was deafening, like machine gun fire! Our poor cars got dented so badly. At least we had insurance!
ReplyDeleteHailstorms in the winter must be really bad. Insurance is always a good thing to have.
DeleteI remember after a large hailstorm car dealerships experienced incredible damage to their cars on the lot. Dents and cracked windshields and such.
ReplyDeleteOuch! That sure sucks. I wonder if they had a sale. haha
DeleteWe get a fair few hailstorms over here, but I've never seen any over an inch - and that's plenty big enough :) xx
ReplyDeleteAn inch is big when you're talking about falling chunks of ice.
DeleteHungary does get hailstorms, sometimes even fairly big ones. We have been caught in one once in a sailing camp while on the water. Not fun... :D
ReplyDelete@TarkabarkaHolgy from
Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary
On the water, a hailstorm would be even scarier.
DeleteHi, visiting from the A-Z. Hail storms are frightening. One last year damaged the siding of my home. We do not normally get tornadoes in WA state, but this storm had me worried. Freaky weather for our area. Interesting post!
ReplyDeleteInventions by Women A-Z
Shells–Tales–Sails
Hail is usually a sign of a tornado, so whenever a storm here in Florida produces it, that's the first thing I think.
DeleteThanks for stopping by, Sharon! :)
Yes, I've had hail damage to my car during the tornado. The temperature dropped about 25 degrees in 15 minutes that day. I'm estimating but basically the hail were large about the size of soft balls. Interesting photos, Chrys!
ReplyDeleteThat's a big drop in such a short amount of time.
DeleteYep, I've seen plenty of hail storms, but nothing with super-big pellets so far. These storms confuse the kids. They wonder why it's "snowing" in the middle of summer!
ReplyDeleteHaha! Snowing. :P
DeleteWe have hail once or twice every summer. My son lived in Colorado last summer and had some car damage to hail.
ReplyDeleteCar damage because of hail sure sucks.
DeleteWe had some hail yesterday! But they were tiny hailstones.
ReplyDeleteReally? All of my posts seem to jive with a current event. Freaky...
DeleteWhen I was growing up in the Middle East, I remember seeing one of the storms, though the diameter of the ice chunks was half of what is shown in the pic above. Also didn't know that China experienced hailstorms :)
ReplyDeleteI guess the storms can get pretty intense in China.
DeleteOh yes. Living in Texas for 18 years we experienced plenty of hailstorms. One in particular was horrible and we were so glad we had a garage. That year, all along Hurricane Alley, insurance companies were livid at the massive amount of claims that came in for hail damage to cars. For years afterward you could tell which cars had been in the storm... Lisa, co-host AtoZ 2015, @ http://www.lisabuiecollard.com
ReplyDeleteNot a good time to be an insurance company, huh? lol
DeleteI've been fortunate enough to never experience a hail storm. We have enough with hurricanes where I'm from!
ReplyDeleteReally? Not once? Wow.
DeleteWe've had a few of those hailstorms, but none quite a impressive as the one you pictured with the huge balls of ice.
ReplyDeleteWell, of course I have to share the most impressive pictures. ;)
DeleteHa, you fooled me! I was sure today was going to be about hurricanes. ;)
ReplyDeleteI've experienced many hail storms, both in Manitoba and in British Columbia. They can be fun as long as you're inside and don't have a car outside. They've ruined many a car around here.
Nope, hurricanes were mentioned under C for Cyclone. ;)
DeleteI know I said I've never been in any disaster my whole life, well yesterday, we had a hailstorm albeit not so serious as I was indoors. Didn't realize when it started raining, until the hail pelted down the windows. My husband was so afraid his windscreen would be done in. Lol. Happy to say that all is well.
ReplyDeleteYou had a hailstorm yesterday? What are the odds of that?
DeleteHailstorms are exciting and terrifying at the same time--especially if you're outside when they hit. Yikes. So glad I wasn't sauntering down the street in Vivian, South Dakota when that 8-incher came bouncing down!
ReplyDeleteHAHA! Luckily no one was hurt by that 8-incher.
DeleteOuch, the windshield...here's another I've yet to experience although I can be remembering wrong. Probably it wasn't as bad as breaking a windshield. But my husband witnessed a real bad hailstorm when he was in Texas briefly for work. He was so glad he'd decided not to take a trip into the town where it happened.
ReplyDeleteTexas seems to get epic hailstorms.
DeleteHi Chrys .. yes some major ones .. especially in South Africa .. and on my tin roof .. it was an old railway workers cottage from the late 1800s .. the tin was newer! Cheers - they are horrendous though .. Hilary
ReplyDeleteHail on a tin roof would be deafening! Yikes.
DeleteI've been in some pretty severe Hailstorms. It blows my mind how big those things can get ... and how much damage they can cause!
ReplyDeleteI never knew they could get as big as the ones I mentioned.
DeleteI remember a hailstorm a long time ago at a friend's house. We were stuck by the chicken coop and I recall watching the hail. I don't think it was really big though.
ReplyDelete~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
Member of C. Lee's Muffin Commando Squad
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
Usually it is smaller hail, but some storms can produce some monsters.
DeleteWe've had a few hail storms here in Vegas but they've been small hail. Nothing really big.
ReplyDeleteThat's good.
DeleteYes I've been in hailstorms, but not anything unusual. I watched a documentary the other day about weather changes as a result of Earth losing some of its magnetic field. They said hailstorms could get worse. . .and do more damage.
ReplyDeleteThat would not be a very good thing.
DeleteYep, been in several, but two particularly memorable, one in Egypt a couple years back, roadsides filled up in white, never imagined could happen there. And another way back as a child, hailstones the size of eggs!
ReplyDeleteYou've been to Egpty? How neat. But not that storm. That storm sounds like it was really bad.
DeleteDefinitely experienced a hailstorm. They really do the damage.
ReplyDeleteThey sure do.
DeleteDon't normally think of it as a disaster, but that stuff is brutal!
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't normally think of hail as a disaster, but they sure can become a disaster with their damage.
DeleteMy daughter's name is Hayley and her nick name is Hail. When the kids were little and a hail storm was coming, my sister said to her husband that hail was on it's way and her son TJ got all excited when he thought Hayley was coming to play.
ReplyDeleteHail storms unfortunately can do a lot of damage!
Aw! That's really cute. :)
DeleteI've seen really small hail, but only the damage causing kind a few times. I can't believe there was one that was eight inches across!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe it either!
DeleteI haven't experienced hailstorms (and many of the natural disasters mentioned except for earthquakes) but I have watched on the news how they, like stones, have pelted people on the streets. My God, how painful that must have been. And there's always a few cracked windshields.
ReplyDeleteIt must be painful. Not only is it solid ice, but cold and falling fast from the sky. OUCH!
DeleteI've experienced a lot of mild 1cm or so hail, but nothing like that photo. It would suck to be outside with no shelter in one of those storms.
ReplyDeleteIt would suck. Big time!
DeleteMy friend ruined a three day old car due to hail. Not awesome.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the 2015 A to Z Challenge!
A to Z Co-Host S. L. Hennessy
http://pensuasion.blogspot.com
Not awesome at all.
DeleteWe don't usually get big hail stones here in Perth, Australia, but I think in the last few years we've had some maybe golf ball sized ones.
ReplyDeleteI heard, because of the change in weather, we could all be seeing bigger sized hail. :(
DeleteI've been in hail, but thankfully nothing that caused a lot of damage!
ReplyDeletebetty
Thank goodness!
DeleteWe actually had hail take a chunk out of our vinyl siding when I was in my 20s. We had to file an insurance claim. Sucked!
ReplyDeleteGosh! At least you had insurance to take care of that.
DeleteI've been through a couple hailstorms, but they were minor and lasted maybe a minute or two. Freaky to hear. Freaky to see the hailstones (although we never got big ones).
ReplyDeleteIt is freaky to hear the hail hitting the house. And, yup, freaky to see the hail on the ground in the summer.
DeleteThe only hailstorms I've been in are the small ones that bounce on the ground when they fall. We did rent a car in MO that had been through a really bad hailstorm, it was potmarked with small dents all over it. A bunch of cars in there lot looked the same. Something I thought of as "cute," wasn't so cute anymore.
ReplyDeleteYou can find me here:
ClarabelleRant
They probably got hit with a hailstorm.
DeleteThis is the best way to dent a car! Ouch
ReplyDeleteIt is. Better than a car accident any day.
DeleteWe get hail storms every once in a while. When the girls were little, they would run outside as soon as it ended and collect the hail - as this was the closest to snow they would see.
ReplyDeleteIt was the closest to snow I ever saw as a kid too.
DeleteIn the UK, we only have teenie weenie hailstones compared to the US. The best, and by that I mean most impressive, hailstorm I've ever been in, I was sitting in the car with my sister (stataionary thank goodness), and it started bucketing down with hailstones. They were only about 5mm in size, but there was so many of them that in a few minutes, the whole ground and anything that could catch them was white. I'd never seen a hailstorm so intense.
ReplyDeleteSophie
Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles
FB3X
Wittegen Press
It's freaky when everything turns white from the hail.
DeleteWe just had a really bad hailstorm last night with the biggest hail I've ever seen. I normally like thunderstorms but this was scary! And I was amazed my car made it through unscathed.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the odds of that? It seems a lot of my posts are happening. Maybe I should stop?
DeleteOur hailstorms aren't much to speak of, but it still sounds like the heavens are throwing rocks!
ReplyDeleteThe sound is the worst.
DeleteWe saw hail about a month ago but it is nothing severe. I remember a bad one when I was a kid and it made dents on our car.
ReplyDeleteCars seem to get the most damage from hail.
DeleteIt must be scary to live in the "Hail Alley" area... though I'm sure that residents get used to it...
ReplyDeleteI can't remember ever experiencing a devastating hail storm.
Our hailstones are of average size.
They probably do. Or they are just sick of it.
DeleteI'm lucky- the largest hail I've ever encountered was only a few centimeters in diameter. Enough to make it sound really loud and scary from inside your car, but not enough to do any real damage.
ReplyDeleteThe sound of ice on metal is deafening.
Delete