Because of what hail is coming and which hailstones were the largest and deadliest

In the second half of May 2023 in Krasnodarthe region and Adygea suddenly fell a strong hail. It is reported that ice floes falling from the sky were the size of a chicken egg. As a result of their fall in Adygea, eight houses, two cars and one person were damaged. There were no casualties in the Krasnodar Territory, but large blocks of ice damaged 23 houses. Needless to say, the hail severely damaged the orchards and orchards - the crop was in jeopardy. Hail is a rather rare occurrence compared to rain, but sometimes it comes, and very hard. There were cases when ice blocks turned out to be so large that people died when they were in open space. In the framework of this article, we propose to find out what causes the hail and which of the cases led to the most severe destruction.

Most often, hail occurs in low-lying regions, and where there are mountains, this is a very rare occurrence.

Content

• 1 Why hail is coming
• 2 The largest hail in history
• 3 Heaviest hail in the world
• 4 Largest layer of hail
• 5 Deadliest hail
• 6 The strongest hail in Russia

Why is hail coming

Hail is precipitation that consists of frozendrops of water. They form in cumulonimbus clouds that can reach up to 10 kilometers in height. This type of cloud forms only in summer, so hail does not occur in autumn, winter and spring. Powerful streams are often observed inside them, which can lift raindrops upward, where the temperature is below zero in the flesh up to -40 degrees Celsius.

Cumulonimbus clouds look something like this

In the upper layers of cumulonimbus cloudsfreeze and stick together, resulting in the formation of hailstones of different sizes. Under their weight, they fall at a rapid speed of up to 15 meters per second, which is why they do not have time to melt even in the summer heat. In tropical countries, cumulonimbus clouds can be so high that hailstones the size of a baseball or even more form in them.

See also: The most unusual natural phenomena that always surprise people

The largest city in history

On the Internet, you can find a lot of news about whatin some part of the world the largest hail has fallen. Apparently, the largest hail fell on the territory of the US state of South Dakota. During the afternoon and evening of July 23, 2010, there were severe thunderstorms - they were especially remembered by the residents of Stanley, Jones and Lyman counties. The city of Vivien was badly damaged, where, in addition to a thunderstorm, there was hail and a tornado.

After the storm passed, the localsbegan to find hailstones on the ground up to 47 centimeters in size and weighing 900 grams. Lee Scott found the largest hailstone - the ice block turned out to be so large that an impact crater with a diameter of 25 centimeters formed on the ground. It's not an asteroid crater, but for hail the size was impressive. He called experts from the national meteorological service to the place where the hailstones were found. By the time they arrived, the diameter of the hailstone was 20.3 centimeters - it had melted, but before that it was clearly large.

The largest officially registered hailstone with a diameter of 20.3 centimeters

To be fair, it should be noted that in 201818.8 centimeters in diameter, a hailstone was found on the territory of the Argentine city of Villa Carlos Paz. According to some meteorologists, in some respects it could be considered larger than the hailstone in South Dakota. But no one officially acknowledged it.

Gradina found in the Argentine city of Villa Carlos Paz

Large hailstones damage not only crops -houses and cars are destroyed. In 2020, hailstones up to 18 centimeters in diameter passed through the Libyan capital Tripoli. The photos below show how large the hailstones were and how much damage they caused to cars.

Hail damage in the city of Tripoli

The heaviest hail in the world

The heaviest hailstone ever recordedwas discovered in 1986 in Bangladesh. On the afternoon of April 14, after the last hail, a block of ice weighing 1 kilogram was found on the ground. Needless to say, other hailstones were just as heavy. As a result of this terrible phenomenon, 92 people died.

Heavy hailstones also fell in other parts of the world.For example, in August 1958, a hailstone weighing about 0.97 kilograms was found on the territory of the French city of Strasbourg. But this information was taken only from the words of eyewitnesses - officially no one took the measurement.

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The largest layer of hail

The largest layer of hail was recorded inthe city of Seldon, which is located in the US state of Kansas. This happened on June 3, 1959 - the thickness of the layer of ice balls was 45 centimeters. In total, they covered an area of ​​140 square kilometers.

Huge canvas of hail in the city of Seldon

Interesting fact: some sources say that the mosta large hail was recorded in 1981 in the Chinese province of Guangdong. The hailstones weighed up to 7 kilograms, which killed 5 people and destroyed 10,500 structures.

The deadliest city

Hail damages houses, cars, gardens, andalso causes injuries to people - sometimes they are incompatible with life. According to open sources, the deadliest hail took place on April 30, 1888 in the Indian regions of Moradabad and Beheri. It is believed that blocks of ice that fell from the sky caused the death of 246 people, as well as 1,600 head of cattle. It is known that the size of some hailstones was comparable to the diameter of an orange.

During hail, you need to quickly seek cover - it can cause serious injuries

The strongest hail in Russia

The largest hail in Russia was registeredJune 16, 1904. Then a tornado swept through Moscow, as a result of which 233 people were injured, and more than 100 people died. According to modern calculations, the speed of the tornado reached 55-60 kilometers per hour. According to numerous eyewitnesses, the size of the hail was comparable to the diameter of a pigeon's egg. It's about 4 centimeters. Of course, compared to the hailstones mentioned above, this is negligible. But these pieces of ice brought a lot of problems.

Church of Peter and Paul in Moscow after a tornado on June 16, 1904

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Everything written above looks scary, but hailis far from the most terrible natural phenomenon. A lot of destruction can be caused by snowfalls - if you want details, read our selection of "5 heaviest snowfalls in modern history."