whats the difference between hailstones and snow.

[webbo3]

is it a temperature difference ? ,after all hailstones are small pieces of ice, and snow is flakes of ice, what causes the difference ?




Dave.

[McMouse]

In Minnesota you get hailstones tohe size of golf balls............you know the difference if one hits you on the head.

[webbo3]

a lot smaller here in England, thank god, ive seen videos/documentarys of storm chasers and their cars getting hit by the big ones you mention and they cause a lot of damage.

Dave.

[Clanad]

I suppose that, technically, your premise that both are "ice" is correct. However, the formation process is what defines each. Snow is crystalline in nature... which form around dust or dirt particles in the atmosphere. Each individual crystal is in the form of a hexagonal lattice, which can then join to other crystals to make the "flake".

Hail on the other hand, is a drop of rain that freezes, is lifted within cumulonimbus clouds, becomes coated with additional ice, to the point it can not be supported by the rising columns of air and falls, sometimes to the ground and sometimes to be re-circulated (perhaps numerous times) up the air column, gaining size each time. If you had the opportunity to cut a hailstone i two pieces it would resemble an onion in its layering...

[heathfield]

Read all about it here...

http://www.physicalge.../fundamentals/8f.html

[webbo3]

tnx for your answers, now i know..... :-)
it just seemed strange how with cold weather sometimes you get rain, sometimes hail.

tnx again.

Dave.

[morn]

snow started as snow, and remains snow all the time it is falling to earth. Hail starts as rain and the raindrops freeze on their way down.