Snow and hail

[laral5]

How is hail made and how is that different from how snow is made?

[Clanad]

At its simplest, hail is a frozen raindrop that begins to melt as it falls, but due to convective updrafts, it is carried back to an altitude where it re-freezes, drops agin, gains another coating of water and is carried back up to be frozen yet again.  This can happen many times if conditions are favorable.  If you cut a hailstone through it will have a layered appearance, somewhat like an onion.  This is the reason some hailstones can attain dramatically large sizes.  Snow, on the other hand, is simply water vapor that turns to a crystalline form as it is frozen, and falls to the earth with little or no change, since the air temperature is less than 0C from the time of its formation until it lands on the earth... By the way, the temperature of the air has a lot to do with the shape of the snowflake... usually 6 sided...

[newtron]

 This site shows some pictures that illustrate the layered appearance of a hail stone that Clanad mentioned.  This hail storm, which produced hail stones up to 4 inches in diameter happened where I used to live just a few days after I moved out of the country.  I've lived in that area most of my life and I have never seen hail like that!!