Weather field note
Ice that grows in the sky
The Storm's Icy Marbles
A single hailstone can be tossed up and down inside a storm cloud again and again before it finally falls as a lump of ice.
Let's look closer
How does a tiny piece of ice grow big enough to fall to the ground?
trong updrafts inside a thunderstorm can carry a small ice pellet high into freezing cloud layers, where it picks up another coating of ice from tiny supercooled water droplets, before gravity pulls it back down a little and the wind shoves it upward once again. Each round trip through the cloud adds a new icy layer, much like the rings of an onion, which is why a hailstone cut in half often shows visible bands inside. This cycle repeats over and over until the hailstone finally grows too heavy for even the storm's powerful winds to hold aloft, and it falls the rest of the way to the ground.
Look for this
Explorer clue
If a hailstone ever falls near you safely indoors, look closely (or ask an adult to help you cut one open) for the layered rings inside.
Your turn to wonder
Curiosity question
If you added one new layer to yourself every time you tried something brave, how many layers might you have by now?
Keep wandering
