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Monster hail in Mississippi | Weather Rewind

Severe storms in the South caused tornado and hail damage much of the week. In this week's Weather Rewind, we look back at the large hailstones and what causes them.

MISSISSIPPI, USA — It’s time for another Weather Rewind, where we look back at this week’s most impressive weather!

This week, days of severe weather in the South brought damaging winds, tornadoes, and large hail—a size that’s rarely ever seen here in Pennsylvania.

LET’S REWIND

Almost 200,000 customers were left without power after Wednesday’s storms alone.

Lightning struck a traffic camera near Savannah, Georgia, where part of I-95 was shut down from fallen power lines. A tornado was also confirmed nearby.

In Alabama, a tornado damaged several homes and businesses in the city of Eufaula.

East of Dallas, another possible tornado shredded a two story building and damaged cars.

The hail was exceptional, too!

A handful of cities in Arkansas reported small to even baseball-sized hail.

One of the largest came from Mississippi, where this monster hail measured a little more than 5 inches in diameter. That’s almost 9 inches in circumference.

Fortunately, larger hail likes this is very rare here in Pennsylvania.

But what helps it get that large in the first place? Let’s look at the process.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Hail size is based on the strength of updrafts in a thunderstorm.

That’s the air flowing up into a thunderstorm and what helps create the storm in the first place.

Credit: FOX43 Weather
Strong thunderstorm updrafts allow hail to form. The process begins when the updraft pushes frozen water droplets higher up in a storm, allowing them to fully freeze.

Frozen water droplets high up in the thunderstorm cloud are pushed higher by the updraft.

As that happens, it adds a layer of ice, and then it falls back down a little.

Credit: FOX43 Weather
Frozen water droplets are swept up higher into a thunderstorm cloud, adding layers of ice to a growing hailstone. As the up-and-down processes continues in thunderstorm, the hailstone grows larger.

As long as the updraft is strong enough, this up-and-down process repeats itself, adding more and more layers to the hail.

Eventually, the size of the hailstone becomes so large, it overcomes the force of the updraft.

Credit: FOX43 Weather
Eventually, the hailstone grows too large for the updraft to support it. It falls out of the thunderstorm when that point is reached.

So, the hail falls out of the storm.

Put simply, the stronger the updraft, the larger the hail size.

Stayed tuned for more impressive weather, and the “whys” behind these weather wonders each week.

Download the FOX43 app here.

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