HAIL STATE

Dear Readers of crankyweather,

I certainly hope that as you have read this blog that you understand at least a little of what I say. However, apparently not everyone at Mississippi State University is quite as literate in weather as you wonderful people are. Today, as we had some snowflakes, sleet and rain come down on campus, the students were all talking about the "hail" outside. Twitter was full of students commenting on how ironic it was that it was hailing at state, where a common greeting is "Hail State." I am writing this today to put down this bit of unintelligent thinking, and to  combat the rumor that in the winter, it can hail whenever, as opposed to in the summer, when hails comes down only in certain thunderstorms. According to dictionary.com, sleet is defined as "precipitation in the form of ice pellets created by the freezing of rain as it falls." Hail on the other hand is defined as "showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or balls of ice more than 1 / 5  in. (5 mm) in diameter, falling from a cumulonimbus cloud." I would like to go further than just this general definition, which, in all honesty is a little wordy and confusing.

Hail is created during a thunderstorm by the updrafts and downdrafts of the storm. A raindrop begins its life as a piece of ice; at the altitude at which they are created, it is below freezing. When this raindrop falls in a thunderstorm, it falls, melts and combines with other raindrops, but before it falls out from the cloud, an updraft picks it up and sends it back up to the top of the storm, where it refreezes. So this same raindrop, just larger, has frozen, and begins falling to earth again. This process happens several times, and eventually the hailstone will be too heavy for the updraft to send back up, and so it falls to earth. This is the life of a hail stone. Sleet has a much simpler life story.

Sleet, begins as a snowflake! Thats is awesome just by itself, I know. Anyway, the snowflake begins falling to earth, but as it falls, it reaches air that is warmer than freezing. This snowflake melts there, however below this layer of warm air in the sky, there is another layer of cold layer. This layer refreezes the snowflake, only now its not a snowflake, but an ice pellet... sleet. The sleet then falls the rest of the way frozen to the surface where it hits you in the head, and you notice it more so than rain or snow, because it hurts more. This is why sleet, snow and rain can all occur simultaneously. Because each individual flake, pellet or drop is going through this on its own and may not be at the same stage. 

Freezing rain is another winter precipitation type people are often confused on. Freezing rain happens when the ground is below freezing, but the air directly above it is not. This means the sleet doesn't refreeze until it hits the ground. This creates a glaze over the surface, on roads, this is known as black ice. This type of ice is quite common in North Carolina, which is infamous for its ice storms. Freezing rain is extremely dangerous because it is hard to see, especially at night. If anything is "shiny" and you are driving on it, take extreme caution, or better yet, stay home, read a book, sit by the fire and have something warm to drink!

In conclusion, sleet does NOT equal hail. Sleet is often mixed with snow and rain. Hail happens during a thunderstorm. Hopefully this has cleared up some questions that may have been in your mind as you went about your business today. :)