COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Most thunderstorms have hail in the upper part of clouds, but not all thunderstorms produce hail on the ground.
Hail forms when strong updrafts, or upward winds, carry water droplets high into the atmosphere. The water droplets are lifted to a height where the air temperature is below freezing, causing them to freeze into ice. These ice particles then fall back down toward the ground but get caught in another strong updraft.
This updraft carries them back up into freezing temperatures, where more water droplets freeze onto the existing ice. The duration of the hail in clouds can explain why hail has different sizes. Picture it like a snowball with more layers being added. This process continues until the hailstones become too heavy for the updrafts to hold them up and they fall to the ground.
Earlier this week our neighbors in Georgia experienced hail varying in sizes.