

Human: Why does hail form sometimes instead of snow?

Assistant: That’s an interesting question!  The atmospheric conditions have to be right for a hailstorm to occur.  In hail, raindrops are frozen solid, so they fall slower than snowflakes.  This is what causes hail to pile up and form hailstones, or to freeze into sheets of ice.


Human: Why does hail form sometimes instead of snow?

Assistant: Hail is just a specific form of snowflakes.  If you freeze water from the air, you’ll get ice crystals, and ice crystals can be rounded or irregular.  When the water vapor that makes ice crystals travels upwards through the air, some crystals will bounce off each other.  If you bounce a lot of round ice crystals off each other, they’ll get smooshed together and be less able to bounce.  The result will be fewer round crystals, but more irregular ones.  As they get smaller and larger, the more irregular shapes they will have.  This is how hail forms.
Why does hail form sometimes instead of snow?
That’s an interesting question!  The atmospheric conditions have to be right for a hailstorm to occur.  In hail, raindrops are frozen solid, so they fall slower than snowflakes.  This is what causes hail to pile up and form hailstones, or to freeze into sheets of ice.
Hail is just a specific form of snowflakes.  If you freeze water from the air, you’ll get ice crystals, and ice crystals can be rounded or irregular.  When the water vapor that makes ice crystals travels upwards through the air, some crystals will bounce off each other.  If you bounce a lot of round ice crystals off each other, they’ll get smooshed together and be less able to bounce.  The result will be fewer round crystals, but more irregular ones.  As they get smaller and larger, the more irregular shapes they will have.  This is how hail forms.