In a warming climate, how can fewer small hailstones reach the ground while the largest hailstones become more common?
Show answer & explanation
Answer: Stronger rising air grows larger hail, while a deeper warm layer melts more small hail on the way down.
Warmer air stops small hail forming, while large hail still forms higher in the cloud. — Warmer air near the ground does not stop small hail forming in the colder parts of a storm cloud. Small stones can form aloft and then melt before landing. Meanwhile, stronger rising air can help larger stones grow.
Stronger rising air grows larger hail, while a deeper warm layer melts more small hail on the way down. ✓ — Stronger updrafts can support larger growing hailstones, while a deeper layer of above-freezing air melts more small stones before they land. This combines growth inside the cloud with melting below it. The balance varies by region and storm, so warming does not increase large hail everywhere.
Small hailstones stick together in warmer air, becoming larger stones before they land. — The shift is not caused by small hailstones merging in warm air on the way down. That layer melts ice rather than freezing stones together. Larger hail grows higher in the storm, where rising air keeps it among supercooled water droplets.
More Weather & Climate questions
- Why can a small shift toward larger hail raise damage so much?
- Why do hail researchers simulate the paths individual hailstones take through a storm instead of just counting how many thunderstorms occur?
- Why does hail reach the ground smaller and less often in the tropics than in mid-latitudes?
- Why can one hailstone have both clear and cloudy ice layers instead of growing in one simple up-and-down path?
- Why is the coldest storm top not the best place for hail to grow?
- Why do supercells make 5-cm hail when ordinary storms usually cannot?