During a hike or a camping trip, you might find yourself being visited by some very… solid guests from the sky. They’re cold, and quite painful! What are they?
Hail.
You’ve just found yourself underneath a hailstorm. These things are pelting tiny chunks of ice at you and your tent, and they can be quite painful too!
But why? Where did they come from? Are they dangerous to your trip? These are quite important questions, especially if you value your safety on a hiking trip. Read on to find out more about these hailstorms.
What is a hailstorm?
Hailstones form inside cumulonimbus clouds. Those are the gigantic cloud formations in the sky, and they don’t just look the part. Those clouds can reach towering heights of up to 50,000 feet!
But if hailstones are made of ice, then how do they form in the air?
The lower portions of the clouds contain warm air, while the upper portions of the clouds can reach below freezing temperatures.
Hailstones are formed through a cycle of updrafts and downdrafts.
Updrafts will send raindrops in the zone that has cold temperatures, causing them to freeze into ice crystals. Downdrafts will send these frozen ice crystals down to the warmer area of the clouds, causing them to melt and thaw a bit, while also collecting additional water droplets.
This cycle will repeat multiple times, and every round trip adds a new layer of ice on the surface of the ice crystal.
Eventually, the hailstone will grow too large and heavy for the updraft to carry it, breaking the cycle and causing the hailstone to fall out of the cloud and towards the ground. Of course, that also means that if the updraft is stronger, the hailstone will be able to go through more cycles before falling out of the cloud.
Thus, the hailstones that you see are the ones that have been thrown off due to being too heavy to be brought up.
Also, fun fact: Despite being made of ice, hail is not exclusively a cold-weather event. Yes, as it turns out, winter is not the only season that gets hail time.
Instead, hail can happen at any time of the year, and it happens more often in the spring in summer months than it does in winter, which is around the same time that thunderstorms are swirling about. Hailstorms are usually a sign that a powerful thunderstorm is coming your way.
Why are hailstorms dangerous?
Despite lasting for a few minutes at most, this is more than enough time for hailstorms to become dangerous and destructive to both property and humans in the area.
Hailstone velocity varies depending on its shape and size. Obviously, the larger hailstones are going to fall much faster and cause much more damage than smaller ones.
Thanks to being solid ice dropping at very high speeds, hail can do a lot of blunt damage. Roofs with a solid foundation might be able to get off with minimal damage, but vehicles might get a good dent or two on them.
The most vulnerable to damage, however, are crops. All it takes is a minute or two for hail to reign fire (or ice) on the hard work of a poor farmer, rendering all of their efforts moot.
Humans are not completely immune to hail either. While most of them might be perceived as a slight annoyance, especially if they are small, some hailstones can grow very large to do some real damage to you. Blunt-force trauma to the head from a giant hailstone is probably not something you want to experience while outdoors.
How do you protect yourself from a hailstorm?
Run like hell! Seek shelter, anything with a roof will do. Hailstorms will only last for a few minutes at most, so you can safely walk back out when the hailstorm passes.
If you are caught outdoors with no shelter close enough, then your options are more limited. The best thing you can do is find cover under a roof-like structure. The bigger, the better. What is important here is that you can protect your head using something.
Don’t try to use trees though, they can actually be dangerous! If a hailstorm is powerful enough, the force of the hail might be powerful enough to rip off tree branches, causing them to fall down on any unsuspecting person below and giving them a nasty blow in the process.
If you have a backpack, now is the time to use it as a hail-deterrent. If the hailstones are large enough, your backpack might have to take the brunt of it and may become damaged as a result, but better it than you, right?
The best thing you can do, however, is to do your research. Weather forecasters look for the signs of a potential hailstorm and will alert residents if one is potentially on the way. If things look very dark and cloudy, and the weather forecaster calls for hail, it might be a good idea to play it safe and stay home for the day.