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Snow and Hail Do you know what the difference is between hail and snow? Both are little pieces of ice falling from the sky, so what makes them different? Keep reading to find out! Wacky Weather Science Projects How Much Water Is in Snow? You may hear adults talk about how many inches of snow fell during a snowstorm. Do you think that's the same as how many inches of water fell? Try this experiment and find out! (If you don't have snow where you live, you can still have fun making your own crystal snowflakes!) What You Will Need:
What To Do:
What's Happening? Snow is made when water freezes in the form of ice crystals that we call snowflakes. The pointed star-like shape of a snowflake causes its points to stick out far from its body, allowing the snowflake to take up a lot of room. (If you stick your arms straight out from your body, something similar would happen with you! Your arms cause your body to take up more space and you may find yourself bumping into walls or having a hard time making your way down a hallway with your arms sticking straight out.) When lots of snowflakes pile up, their points keep them from getting very close together, creating empty space in between the snowflakes. When the snow melts into water, the snowflakes no longer have their points, and the space between them disappears. (If you put your arms down next to your body, you are no longer taking up so much space and can get much closer to other people and things.) So the melted snow takes up less space as water than it did as snowflakes. Naming Hailstones  Hailstones are chunks or balls of ice that sometimes fall during thunderstorms. To find how this happens, read our Teacher Tidbit section on hail. Have you ever heard of golf-ball-sized hail? Or maybe you have heard of pea-sized hail. Where do people get these strange names for hail? Try this experiment to get an idea of how hail sometimes gets weird names. Gather as many of the following objects as possible:
For older kids:
What To Do:
What's Happening? When a hailstorm hits an area, it's hard not to notice the pieces of ice suddenly falling from the sky. Depending on the storm, these pieces of ice can range in size from very small to very large. Knowing the size of the hail is important because it gives us an idea of how strong the storm is that made the hail. In general, the larger the hail, the stronger the storm. The common objects that you used in the activity represent common hailstone sizes. If you have ever tried to guess the size of hailstones in inches, you may have found that hard to do - most people do. Getting an accurate size of the hailstones is tricky unless you have a ruler handy to measure whenever a storm happens, plus hail usually melts quickly since it comes with summer storms and warm temperatures. To make it easier, we usually estimate the size of hailstones by comparing them to common round objects, like the ones listed above. The next time you experience a hailstorm, go outside after the hail has stopped falling and see if you can find any hailstones left on the ground. Then think of as many objects as you can that the hail is similar in size to. Fun Facts The largest snowflake recorded was found in Montana in 1887. It was 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick! The largest hailstone on record fell in Nebraska on June 22, 2003. It measured 7 inches across (diameter) and 18.75 inches around (circumference). That's the size of a large cantaloupe! Silly Science What's worse than raining cats and dogs? Where do snowmen keep their money? What do you call an old snowman? Way Cool Websites Want to learn more about how hail forms? Watch this animation on hail formation to see what happens way up in the sky. If you are outside looking for snowflakes, these snowflake drawings can help you identify the shapes of the snowflakes. William "Snowflake" Bentley was the first person to photograph snowflakes. Take a look at some of the snowflakes in his collection of snowflake pictures. Teacher Tidbits Snow  Snow forms in the clouds when water vapor freezes into ice crystals - what we call snowflakes. While many clouds can produce snow, dark nimbostratus clouds are usually the best snow makers. These clouds are full of water, which makes them look very dark. If it is warm outside, rain will fall from them, but if it is cold enough, snow will fall. These clouds block out sunlight and make the sky look solid gray. Snowflakes come in a large variety of shapes, but all snowflakes have six sides. On some snowflake shapes it is very easy to see all six sides, but on other shapes it is a bit harder to see them. Here are some of the most basic shapes:
If it is snowing outside, go out and try to identify the shapes of the snowflakes. Try catching the snowflakes on a sheet of black construction paper so that they are easier to see. Just leave the paper outside for a few minutes first to let it cool down so that the snowflakes don't melt as quickly! Snowflakes can take on lots of different shapes, including combining some of the basic snowflake shapes. As you are looking at the snowflakes, notice the patterns made in them. You should notice that they make identical (or very close to identical) patterns on all of the points of the star. If you could fold a snowflake in half, you would see that both sides of the snowflake would match up. This is called symmetry. If you find a snowflake without six sides, it was probably damaged by strong winds or bumping into other snowflakes while it was falling. These snowflakes are sometimes called irregular snowflakes, because it is hard to tell what type of shape they were originally. Hail Hail forms when very strong winds push drops of water high up in the air where it is very cold. This causes the water to freeze into balls of ice called hail. When the hail gets too heavy for the wind to keep it up in the air, it falls to the ground. Because hail needs very strong winds to form, it usually comes with tornadoes and thunderstorms that happen in the warm spring and summer months. Imagine having little balls of ice on the ground while it is warm outside!  The individual pieces of hail are called hailstones. The size of a hailstone is often described using names of common objects that are close to the size of the hailstones. For example, pea-sized hail is the size of peas and golf-ball-sized hail is about the size of golf balls. Hail is usually small, but it is not impossible for grapefruit or softball sized hail to fall when the weather conditions are just right! To learn more about hail sizes, do the Naming Hailstones science project. Huge cumulonimbus clouds (like the ones in the picture), also known as thunderheads, produce hail. If you see these clouds in the sky, there is a good chance that a hailstorm may be coming your way. Hailstorms do not last very long - only about 5-10 minutes - but that is long enough to damage buildings, cars, and farmers' crops. Some places get hailstorms that can leave over a foot of hail on the ground! If it ever starts hailing where you live, get inside quickly and stay away from windows that may get broken by the falling hail. Printable Worksheet Use this Snow and Hail worksheet to review the names of snowflakes and sizes of hailstones through matching and coloring. Science Words Water Vapor - when water from the Earth evaporates into the air, it becomes a gas and is called water vapor. Hexagonal - a shape that has six sides. Symmetry - a shape has symmetry if it can be folded in half and the two sides match up perfectly. |
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