1.Hail doesn't happen often - but it can be one of the scariest kinds of weather.
When it hails, balls of card, heavy ice fall out of the sky. Hailstones are usually small, about the size of peas. However, they can be bigger - marble-sized, egg-sized, or even tennis-ball-sized. Sometimes they're big enough to crush crops, smash car windows, or even kill people.
V A man shows off scars on his arm - the result of being hit by hailstones while riding a bicycle. V
2.A hailstone needs a seed.
Hailstones form inside thunderclouds when very cold water droplets freeze onto a tiny object - the 'seed'. It could be a speck of dust or a plant seed carried into the sky by the wind. The tiny hailstone is then tossed around by the wind. The tiny hailstone is then tossed around by strong winds inside the cloud. More and more layers of ice build up around it until it is so heavy that it falls to the ground.
3.The biggest hailstone ever recorded was the size of a melon!
This giant hailstone fell in Aurora, Nebraska, USA in 2003. It measured 18 centimeters across. The biggest hailstones. They are made of smaller hailstones that have clumped together before falling to the ground.
V The largest hailstone on record is shown here at actual size. It fell in Nebraska, USA in 2003 V
4.Sometimes a hailstone forms around a living thing.
A farmer in Quebec, Canada reported finding a frog inside a hailstone in 1864. In 1894, a hailstone with a turtle inside was reported to have fallen on Bovina, Mississippi, USA. Smaller creatures such as spiders and flies are often trapped inside hailstones.
5.The world's worst hailstorms happen in Northen India and Bangladesh.
Hailstones often destroy crops, and people are regularly injured and killed. In 1888, a hailstorm in India killed around 250 people and more than 1000 sheep and goats.
V People in Mexico City, Mexico, shovel hailstones after a huge hailstorm on 3 August 2006. V
冰雹不会经常发生 - 但它可能是最可怕的天气之一。
当它咔哒一声，卡的球，沉重的冰从天空中掉下来。冰雹通常很小，大约豌豆的大小。然而，它们可以更大 - 大理石尺寸，蛋大小，甚至是网球尺寸。有时他们足够大，可以粉碎作物，粉碎车窗，甚至杀死人。
V一个男人在手臂上露出伤疤 - 骑自行车时被 冰雹击中的结果。 V
冰雹需要种子
当非常冷的水滴冻结在一个微小的物体 - “种子”上时，冰雹形成在雷云内。它可能是灰尘或植物种子被风吹到天空中的斑点。小冰雹然后被风吹拂。然后，小冰雹被云中的强风扔在身旁。越来越多的冰层堆积在它周围，直到它沉重到落地。
有史以来最大的冰雹是瓜的大小！
这个巨型冰雹在2003年在美国内布拉斯加州的奥罗拉落下，测量了18厘米。最大的冰雹。它们是由较小的冰雹组成的，在落地之前已经聚集在一起。
V记录的最大的冰雹在这里显示为实际尺寸。它于2003年落在美国内布拉斯加州
有时候，一个冰雹形成一个生物。
加拿大魁北克的一名农民在1864年报告在一个冰雹中发现一只青蛙。1894年，据报道，内陆有一只乌龟的冰雹在美国密西西比州的博维纳下降。较小的生物，如蜘蛛和苍蝇，经常被困在冰雹中。
在印度北部和孟加拉国，世界上最严重的雹暴发生。
冰雹经常摧毁作物，人们经常受伤和死亡。 1888年，印度的一场雹灾造成约250人死亡，超过1000只绵羊和山羊。
V墨西哥墨西哥城的人们在2006年8月3日发生巨大的雹灾后铲起冰雹