World Record Hail: Water Droplet To Wrecking Ball

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Have you ever wondered how hail is formed? Or just how big it can get? The largest hailstone ever recorded, the size of a volleyball, fell in Vivian, South Dakota on July 23rd, 2010. Large hailstones often shatter windshields, destroy crops, and can even smash through roofs. And while hail might not terrify you in the same way a tornado or earthquake does, each year hailstorms cause between $10 and $20 billion across the U.S.

In this episode of Weathered, we learn how the IBHS Research Laboratory is using 3D printers, sophisticated potato guns, a sky-diving chamber, and other state-of-the-art equipment to help unravel the mystery of how on earth such large hailstones form… and how we can reduce the damage they cause.

Weathered is a show hosted by weather expert Maiya May and produced by Balance Media that helps explain the most common natural disasters, what causes them, how they’re changing, and what we can do to prepare.

And keep up with Weathered and PBS Terra on:

Thank you Margaret A. Carghill Philanthropies for supporting PBS.

[an.opossum]

"If you're going through hail, keep going"

[coreyrobinson]

Maiya is hands down my favorite host. Wonderful attitude and clearly loves her job. Way to go!

[CybranM]

Really appreciate the metric conversion! Stretchy polymer is cool, didnt know it was something that was added to roof tiles
Keep up the great work!

[Bluegoespewpewpew]

PBS Terra is incredible, great series!

[justjay]

Experienced a hail storm on the border of the East Garfield Park neighborhood and Humboldt Park neighborhood in Chicago around 2011. Just as I opened my front door I heard something hit the awning above my head. Turned around and saw hailstones about the size of golfballs. The damage was pretty severe between the two neighborhoods. The stones left no leaves on the trees(it was mid summer), a ton of cars were totaled and a ton of damages to homes & structures. My parents thought the world was ending and we never had really experienced anything like that living in the urban Midwest. I had only heard about hail stones that big in rural farming communities. Felt sorry for anyone walking or living on the street at the time.

[zibbitybibbitybop]

Ah yes, hail, the weather that results from the atmosphere behaving like a drunk soccer hooligan and throwing rocks at you.

[MrPriebster]

I grew up 50 miles east of Vivian SD! Also, Colorado gets a ton of hail but for the most part, it tends to be softer hail

[PotteryLife]

I have always (perhaps mistakenly) understood that the stone may take several trips up to the "freezing zone" before getting too heavy and falling from the cloud. This is the first time I have heard that the stone travels up to the freezing zone, stays there, and then falls.

[WillardTrees]

I was working in Coppell Texas in April 2014 or so when a tornado passed near and dropped softball sized hail. Looked like fireballs just melted through peoples windshields the way it impacted. Looked as if they melted thru windshields instead of shattering. It was so strange!

[LususxNaturae]

Also, I don’t think the man meant to be going at high speeds through the storm. Just go at a safe pace to get you out of that place. If the storm seems to be following you, go another way perpendicular to the storm so you can get away or at LEAST drive until you find cover.

[Sgt-Gravy]

I've been through a few softball sized hail storms. There's not much we can do except hope for the best, & hopefully have insurance.

[ricecakeboii]

Hailstorms don’t affect me. I’m part ice type.

[orihsenak]

I've been in several minor hailstorms. The hail looked more like Dippin' Dots than anything dangerous but I'll bet they still stung if you were hit with a bunch of them.

[HARE]

Yep, brutal hailstorm survivor here.
I was out on my bicycle when it started, and quickly found shelter in a neighbor’s house.
June, 2012 in Dallas, TX. Everyone in our neighborhood got new roofs. Many broken windshields and beat up cars.
Our little Scamp 13’ fiberglass travel trailer was completely unscathed, except for one broken window pane.
We had a pile of hail stones a foot deep by our front door.
The historic mansions in Swiss Ave. Historic District, with their slate and tile roofs probably suffered the most.
Not many roofing companies do those kind of roofs, and it took over a year for some of them to be rebuilt.

[santoast]

Thankfully the biggest hail I've ever xperienced was only the size of a nickel, but even that hurts like hell when it pings ya on the funny bone while napping on what was otherwise a very nice summers day. Talk about good aim with that one

[cyankirkpatrick]

Ouch, outside of growing up with living through some dangerous tornadoes this really scares me sometimes, I'm ran hearing the pounding on the glass knowing at any moment that the glass could break scary even as an adult it still has the power to frighten me.

[dbdb]

I remember early 90s Lewisville Tx. Hail came down in slabs. Was amazing and scary.

[Bladavia]

Hail and rain storms have been wrecking havoc over the Alps and Jura region in Europe this summer, record breaking events. I think they might need to re-evaluate their world record hailstone in that lab, cause I've seen many aggregates of similar size this year.

[TheTimeMachine]

Hiking out in the mountains in New Mexico, we’d just set up camp and started eating when the regular afternoon hail came in. This one came on us particularly suddenly but I was under the tarp.. however that didn’t help for long once I started feeling it hit my head. Those storms only last a couple minutes so it wasn’t too bad

[ziziroberts]

Hailstones leveled a gas station in Central Florida a while back. The buildings next door were fine. Bizarre. I parked under some big trees that day. The cars parked out on the street looked like Al Capone and his gang drove through on a mission.