Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Unlike graupel, which is made of rime, and ice pellets, which are smaller and translucent, hail stones – on Earth – consist mostly of water ice and measure between 5 and 200 millimetres (0.20 and 7.9 in) in diameter. The METAR reporting code for hail 5 mm (0.20 in) or greater is GR, while smaller hailstones and graupel are coded GS. Hail is possible within most thunderstorms as it is produced by cumulonimbi (thunderclouds), and within 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) of the parent storm. Hail formation requires environments of strong, upward motion of air with the parent thunderstorm (similar to tornadoes) and lowered heights of the freezing level. In the mid-latitudes, hail forms near the interiors of continents, while in the tropics, it tends to be confined to high elevations.
Read more about Hail.
Famous quotes containing the word hail:
“But hail thou Goddess, sage and holy,
Hail divinest Melancholy,
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight,
And therefore to our weaker view
O’erlaid with black, staid Wisdom’s hue;”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“A mouth that has no moisture and no breath
Breathless mouths may summon;
I hail the superhuman;
I call it death-in-life and life-in-death.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“You can’t run the Church on Hail Marys.”
—Paul Marcinkus (b. 1922)