Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from sleet, though the two are often confused for one another. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a
hailstone. Sleet falls generally in cold weather while hail growth is greatly inhibited at cold temperatures. Unlike graupel, which is made of rime, and ice pellets, which are smaller and translucent, hailstones consist mostly of water ice and measure between 5 millimetres and 15 centimetres in diameter. The METAR reporting code for hail 5 mm or greater is
GR, while smaller hailstones and graupel are coded
GS. Hail is possible within most thunderstorms as it is produced by cumulonimbi, and within 2 nautical miles of the parent storm. Hail formation requires environments of strong, upward motion of air with the parent thunderstorm and lowered heights of the freezing level. In the mid-latitudes, hail forms near the interiors of continents, while in the tropics, it tends to be confined to high elevations. There are methods available to detect hail-producing thunderstorms using weather satellites and weather radar imagery.