The growth of ice pellets within a strong thunderstorm updraft as supercooled water droplets repeatedly freeze onto a small ice nucleus, carried up and down through the storm's core by powerful vertical air currents until the stone grows too heavy for the updraft to support and falls to the ground. The strength and duration of a storm's updraft largely determines hailstone size, with the largest hail produced only by the most intense supercell thunderstorms.
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Timescale (category) Process TypeAtmospheric Circulation 2 Hail Formation
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1. Hail (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia infobox 'Lead section' = 'Hail is a form of solid atmospheric precipitation. It is distinct f...' on 'Hail'View the Source 2. Hail Formation (Wikipedia)
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Hail is a form of solid atmospheric precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets, though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone.
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