Hail and Hailstorms

Hail has been identified as the largest contributor to insured losses from thunderstorms globally, with losses costing the insurance industry billions of dollars each year. Yet, of all precipitation types, hail is probably subject to the largest uncertainties. Some might go so far as to argue that observing and forecasting hail is as difficult, if not more difficult, than is forecasting tornadoes. The reasons why hail is challenging are many and varied and reflected by the fact that hailstones display a wide variety of shapes, sizes and internal structures. There is also an important clue in this diversity—nature is telling us that hail can grow by following a wide variety of trajectories within thunderstorms, each having a unique set of conditions. It is because of this complexity that modeling hail growth and forecasting size is so challenging. Consequently, it is understandable that predicting the occurrence and size of hail seems an impossible task. Through persistence, ingenuity and technology, scientists have made progress in understanding the key ingredients and processes at play. Technological advances mean that we can now, with some confidence, identify those storms that very likely contain hail and even estimate the maximum expected hail size on the ground hours in advance. Even so, there is still much we need to learn about the many intriguing aspects of hail growth.