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What does hail come from? Why is there hail? Is hail dangerous for nature and humans?

Hail is one of the most unusual and mysterious atmospheric phenomena. The nature of its occurrence is not fully understood and remains the subject of fierce scientific debate. Does hail happen at night - the answer to this question is of interest to everyone who has never experienced this rare phenomenon in the dark.

Brief information about the city

Hail is atmospheric precipitation in the form of pieces of ice. The shape and size of these deposits can vary greatly:

Diameter from 0.5 to 15 cm;
Weight from several grams to half a kilogram;
The composition can also be very different: several layers of transparent ice, or alternating transparent and opaque layers;
The form is very diverse - up to bizarre formations in the form of “flower buds”, etc.

Hailstones easily stick together, forming large particles the size of a fist. Precipitation of more than 2 cm in diameter is already sufficient to cause major damage to a farm. As soon as hail of this size is expected, a storm warning is issued.

Different states may have different size thresholds: it all depends on the specific agricultural area. For example, for grape plantations, even small hailstones will be enough to destroy the entire crop.

The necessary conditions

According to modern ideas about the nature of hail, for its occurrence it is necessary:

Water drops;
Condensation yard;
Rising air currents;
Low temperature.

A similar atmospheric phenomenon occurs in 99% of cases in temperate latitudes over large continental areas. Most researchers believe that thunderstorm activity is a prerequisite.

In tropical and equatorial zones, hail is a fairly rare phenomenon, despite the fact that thunderstorms occur quite often there. This happens because for the formation of ice, it is also necessary that at an altitude of approximately 11 km there be a sufficiently low temperature, which does not always happen in warm places on the globe. Hail occurs there only in mountainous areas.

In addition, the probability of hail becomes vanishingly small as soon as the air temperature drops below -30 °C. Supercooled water droplets in this case are located near and inside snow clouds.

How does hail occur?

The mechanism of formation of this type of precipitation can be described as follows:

An ascending air flow containing a significant number of water droplets encounters a cloud layer of low temperature on its path. It often happens that such an air flow is a strong tornado. A significant part of the cloud should be below the freezing point (0 ° C). The probability of hail formation increases a hundredfold when the air temperature at an altitude of 10 km is about -13 °.
Upon contact with condensation nuclei, pieces of ice are formed. As a result of alternating processes of raising and lowering, hailstones acquire a layered structure (transparent and white levels). If the wind blows in a direction where there are a lot of water droplets, a transparent layer is created. If water vapor blows into an area, the hailstones become covered with a crust of white ice.
When colliding with each other, the ice can stick together and seriously grow in size, forming irregular shapes.
Hail formation may last for at least half an hour. As soon as the wind stops supporting the increasingly heavy thundercloud, hail will begin to fall onto the earth's surface.
After the ice passes past the area with temperatures above 0 ° C, the slow process of melting begins.

Why doesn't there hail at night?

In order for ice particles of such a size to form in the sky that they do not have time to melt when they fall to the ground, sufficiently strong vertical air currents are needed. In turn, for the upward flow to be powerful enough, strong heating of the earth's surface is necessary. That is why, in the vast majority of cases, hail falls in the evening and afternoon hours.

However, nothing prevents it from falling out at night, if there is a thundercloud of sufficient size in the sky. True, at night most people sleep, and small hail may go completely unnoticed. That's why the illusion is created that “freezing rain” only occurs during the day.

As for statistics, most hail events occur in the summer at approximately 15:00. The possibility of precipitation is quite high until 22:00, after which the probability of this type of precipitation tends to zero.

Observational data from meteorologists

Among the most famous cases of “freezing rain” falling at night:

One of the most powerful overnight hailstorms occurred on June 26, 1998 in the Illinois village of Hazel Crest. At that time, local agriculture was seriously damaged by hailstones measuring 5 cm in diameter, which fell around 4 o'clock in the morning;
On September 5, 2016, hail fell in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg, damaging local crops;
In the Belarusian city of Dobrush on the night of August 26, 2016, ice floes the size of fists broke car windows;
On the night of September 9, 2007, there was hail in the Stavropol region, which damaged 15 thousand private houses;
On the night of July 1, 1991, an icy downpour hit Mineralnye Vody, which not only caused damage to local households, but even damaged 18 aircraft. The average size of the ice was about 2.5 cm, but there were also giant balls the size of a chicken egg.

Many people still don't know if it hails at night. The probability of this phenomenon occurring at night is vanishingly small, but it still exists. Moreover, these rare cases are accompanied by many of the strongest anomalies that cause serious harm to the economy.

When it hails, the roof and gutters shake with a terrible roar and the hail can cause destruction. Hailstones can pierce the wing of an airplane, destroy wheat seedlings, and hail kills horses, cows and other domestic animals. In a short time, such heavy hail can fall that it completely covers the earth.

After a strong hail storm, rushing streams carry out accumulations of ice up to two meters long and wide. Small hailstones are often round in shape . They fall to the ground like little billiard balls. But it happens that the shape of hailstones has unusual shapes: sometimes a sun with rays, sometimes a frozen letter “X”. The different shapes are caused by the wind blowing the resulting hailstone high in the air.

The largest hailstone

The largest hailstone ever seen fell in September 1970 near Coffeyville, Kansas. It was more than 40 centimeters in diameter, weighed about 800 grams, and ice spikes protruded from it in different directions. This shapeless piece of ice resembled a medieval deadly weapon.

How does hail occur?

Thunderclouds are real hail factories. Powerful air currents carry dust, sand and other small particles inside a thundercloud. A hailstone is formed when pieces of ice stick to particles floating through the air inside a cloud. In some hailstones, such particles may be dead insects.

Interesting:

What is the "greenhouse effect"?

The hailstone grows larger and larger as more and more ice sticks to the wind-born ice “ship”, rushing without a rudder or sails across a thundercloud. If you split a hailstone, you can trace the history of its birth. Rings are visible on the fault, like rings on a tree stump, marking the stages of hailstone growth. One layer is transparent, another is milky, the next is transparent again, and so on.

Interesting fact: a hailstone weighing about 800 grams fell in 1970.

What causes the difference in the structure of hailstone layers?

When the ice on a hailstone freezes quickly (at a very low temperature). In order to carry a hailstone with a diameter of about 10 centimeters through the air, the rising air currents in a thundercloud must have a speed of at least 200 kilometers, which includes snowflakes and air bubbles. This layer looks cloudy. But if the temperature is higher, then the ice freezes more slowly, and the included snowflakes have time to melt and the air evaporates. Therefore, such a layer of ice is transparent. Using the rings, you can trace which layers of the cloud the hailstone visited before falling to the ground.

How does hail get big?

A hailstone grows, flying up and down across the cloud. During this time it becomes heavier and heavier. It is clear that in order for a hailstone to become significantly heavier, the wind in the cloud must be very strong. For example, for a hailstone to grow to 10 centimeters in diameter, the wind speed must be at least 200 kilometers per hour. These powerful air currents carry the hailstone until its weight becomes such that the wind is no longer able to support it in a suspended state. Now the hailstone is falling to the ground.

Forms when tiny pieces of ice, held aloft by strong updrafts, are blown through supercooled thunderclouds until they become heavy enough to fall to the ground. Most large thunderstorms produce some amount of small hailstones, but the proper conditions must be present for the hailstone to grow to freeze several solid layers of ice on it so that it can "survive" until it reaches the Earth's surface.

Internal structure of a hailstone.

Ideal conditions for hail are created by high clouds that are high in the atmosphere, as well as many updrafts such as tornadoes and cold temperatures within and below the storm.

Hailstone

A hailstone begins to form as a kernel of ice, a small accumulation of supercooled drops of water or clots of snow. This center may continue to accumulate ice, melt into a thundercloud and turn into rain, or be broken by other hailstones. If dust, sand, small seeds or other small particles become trapped in a thundercloud, this will create another opportunity for additional ice and hailstones to form.

Diagram of hailstone formation.

Hail can grow into a large number of layers when it is carried upward by the air current through all the thunderstorm layers. Even heavy hailstones can be held aloft by fairly strong updrafts. When the hail falls back through the storm due to gravity, it grows back into even more layers until it becomes so heavy that it falls as precipitation. Hailstones form in the highest, cumulonimbus clouds that reach the colder upper atmosphere, but not all hail survives once it falls from a thundercloud. The outer few layers often melt when hail mixes with other precipitation such as snow and rain.

Fully formed hailstones can range in size from pinheads to a hen's egg. There are official hail size categories that are useful for estimating the damage they can cause. Some hailstones have measured more than 6 inches (15.24 cm) in diameter and more than 1 pound (0.45 kg) in weight. Most hailstones, however, are smaller than 0.5 inches (1.27 cm) across.

Spherical or irregularly shaped (hailstones) ranging in size from a millimeter to several centimeters. There are hailstones measuring 130 mm and weighing about 1 kg. Hailstones consist of a number of layers of transparent ice at least 1 mm thick, alternating with translucent layers.

Hailstone with a diameter of about 60 mm

The layer of fallen hail is sometimes several centimeters. The duration of the fallout is from several minutes to half an hour, most often 5-10 minutes and very rarely - about 1 hour.

Hail formation

Hailstone nuclei form in a supercooled cloud due to the random freezing of individual droplets. In the future, such nuclei can grow to significant sizes due to the freezing of supercooled drops colliding with them, as well as the freezing of hailstones among themselves. Large hailstones can only appear if there are strong updrafts in the clouds that can keep them from falling to the ground for a long time.

Damage and hail control

Hail causes great damage to agriculture, destroying crops and vineyards.

Even in ancient times (at least in the Middle Ages), people noticed that a loud sound prevents hail from occurring or causes smaller hailstones to form. Therefore, to save the crops, bells were rung and/or cannons were fired.

Literature

// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
Genev R. Hail. Translation from French, L., 1966

Links

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Synonyms:

See what "Grad" is in other dictionaries:

hail- hail, and... Russian spelling dictionary

Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

1. GRAD1, grad, male. 1. One of the types of precipitation that falls in small ice balls. The hail destroyed the crops. It was raining and hailing. Hail the size of a nut. 2. portable, units only A lot (about something showering, striking; bookish). Hail... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

Husband. raindrops frozen in air; in its smallest form, cereal. The hail is grainy, ordinary, the size of a pea; walnut hail, about the size of a Russian walnut: hail about a pigeon's egg, about the size of a hen's egg; the hail was like ice splinters, not round, like ice fragments. A hail of bullets... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

1. HAIL, a; m. 1. Atmospheric precipitation in the form of rounded pieces of ice, which are raindrops frozen in the air. Rain with hail. G. fell out and destroyed the crops. 2. what. Plenty, abundance, flow of something. G. bullets. G. stones. G. reproaches, objections... encyclopedic Dictionary

hail- hail: According to GOST R 22.0.03; Source … Dictionary-reference book of terms of normative and technical documentation

Books

The city of Petrov in the history of Russian culture. Textbook for universities, Kagan M.S.. `Grad Petrov` is the first experience of a holistic consideration of the culture of St. Petersburg, the patterns of its history and its existence as a unique phenomenon in the development of national culture. The author explores...

Collection output:

About the mechanism of hail formation

Ismailov Sohrab Akhmedovich

Dr. Chem. Sciences, Senior Researcher, Institute of Petrochemical Processes of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku

ABOUT THE MECHANISM OF THE HAIL FORMATION

Ismailov Sokhrab

doctor of chemical Sciences, Senior Researcher, Institute of Petrochemical Processes, Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku

ANNOTATION

A new hypothesis has been put forward about the mechanism of hail formation in atmospheric conditions. It is assumed that, in contrast to well-known previous theories, the formation of hail in the atmosphere is caused by the generation of high temperature during a lightning discharge. The sudden evaporation of water along the discharge channel and around it leads to its sudden freezing with the appearance of hail of various sizes. For hail to form, a transition from the zero isotherm is not necessary; it also forms in the lower warm layer of the troposphere. The thunderstorm is accompanied by hail. Hail occurs only during severe thunderstorms.

ABSTRACT

Put forward a new hypothesis about the mechanism of formation of hail in the atmosphere. Assuming it"s in contrast to the known previous theories, hail formation in the atmosphere due to the generation of heat lightning. Abrupt volatilization water discharge channel and around its freezing leads to a sharp appearance with its hail different sizes. For education is not mandatory hail the transition of the zero isotherm, it is formed in the lower troposphere warm. Storm accompanied by hail. Hail is observed only when severe thunderstorms.

Keywords: hailstone; zero temperature; evaporation; cold snap; lightning; storm.

Keywords: hailstone; zero temperature; evaporation; cold; lightning; storm.

Man often encounters terrible natural phenomena and tirelessly fights against them. Natural disasters and consequences of catastrophic natural phenomena (earthquakes, landslides, lightning, tsunamis, floods, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, hurricanes, hail) attract the attention of scientists around the world. It is no coincidence that UNESCO has created a special commission to record natural disasters - UNDRO (United Nations Disaster Relief Organization - Elimination of the consequences of natural disasters by the United Nations). Having recognized the necessity of the objective world and acting in accordance with it, a person subjugates the forces of nature, forces them to serve his goals and turns from a slave of nature into the ruler of nature and ceases to be powerless before nature, becomes free. One of these terrible disasters is hail.

At the site of the fall, hail, first of all, destroys cultivated agricultural plants, kills livestock, and also the person himself. The fact is that a sudden and large influx of hail excludes protection from it. Sometimes, in a matter of minutes, the surface of the earth is covered with hail 5-7 cm thick. In the Kislovodsk region in 1965, hail fell, covering the ground with a layer of 75 cm. Usually hail covers 10-100 km distances. Let's remember some terrible events from the past.

In 1593, in one of the provinces of France, due to raging winds and flashing lightning, hail fell with a huge weight of 18-20 pounds! As a result, great damage was caused to crops and many churches, castles, houses and other structures were destroyed. The people themselves became victims of this terrible event. (Here we must take into account that in those days the pound as a unit of weight had several meanings). It was a terrible natural disaster, one of the most catastrophic hailstorms to hit France. In the eastern part of Colorado (USA), about six hailstorms occur annually, each of them causing huge losses. Hailstorms most often occur in the North Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, and in the mountainous regions of Central Asia. From June 9 to June 10, 1939, hail the size of a chicken egg fell in the city of Nalchik, accompanied by heavy rain. As a result, over 60 thousand hectares were destroyed wheat and about 4 thousand hectares of other crops; About 2 thousand sheep were killed.

When talking about a hailstone, the first thing to note is its size. Hailstones usually vary in size. Meteorologists and other researchers pay attention to the largest ones. It’s interesting to learn about absolutely fantastic hailstones. In India and China, ice blocks weighing 2-3 kg. They even say that in 1961, a heavy hailstone killed an elephant in Northern India. On April 14, 1984, hailstones weighing 1 kg fell in the small town of Gopalganj in the Republic of Bangladesh. , leading to the death of 92 people and several dozen elephants. This hail is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records. In 1988, 250 people were killed in hailstorms in Bangladesh. And in 1939, a hailstone weighing 3.5 kg. Just recently (05/20/2014) hailstones fell in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, so large in size that their heaps were removed from the streets with heavy equipment.

All these data indicate that hail damage to human activity is no less important than other extraordinary natural phenomena. Judging by this, a comprehensive study and finding the cause of its formation using modern physical and chemical research methods, as well as the fight against this terrible phenomenon, are urgent tasks for humanity all over the world.

What is the operating mechanism for hail formation?

Let me note in advance that there is still no correct and positive answer to this question.

Despite the creation of the first hypothesis on this matter in the first half of the 17th century by Descartes, however, the scientific theory of hail processes and methods of influencing them was developed by physicists and meteorologists only in the middle of the last century. It should be noted that back in the Middle Ages and in the first half of the 19th century, several assumptions were made by various researchers, such as Boussingault, Shvedov, Klossovsky, Volta, Reye, Ferrell, Hahn, Faraday, Sonke, Reynold, etc. Unfortunately, their theories did not receive confirmation. It should be noted that the latest views on this issue are not scientifically substantiated, and there is still no comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of city formation. The presence of numerous experimental data and the totality of literary materials devoted to this topic made it possible to assume the following mechanism of hail formation, which was recognized by the World Meteorological Organization and continues to operate to this day (To avoid any disagreements, we present these arguments verbatim).

“Warm air rising from the earth's surface on a hot summer day cools with height, and the moisture it contains condenses, forming a cloud. Supercooled droplets in clouds are found even at a temperature of -40 °C (altitude approximately 8-10 km). But these drops are very unstable. Tiny particles of sand, salt, combustion products and even bacteria lifted from the earth's surface collide with supercooled drops and upset the delicate balance. Supercooled drops that come into contact with solid particles turn into an icy hailstone embryo.

Small hailstones exist in the upper half of almost every cumulonimbus cloud, but most often such hailstones melt as they approach the earth's surface. So, if the speed of ascending currents in a cumulonimbus cloud reaches 40 km/h, then they are unable to contain the emerging hailstones, therefore, passing through a warm layer of air at an altitude of 2.4 to 3.6 km, they fall out of the cloud into in the form of small “soft” hail or even in the form of rain. Otherwise, rising air currents lift small hailstones to layers of air with temperatures ranging from -10 °C to -40 °C (altitude between 3 and 9 km), the diameter of the hailstones begins to grow, sometimes reaching several centimeters. It is worth noting that in exceptional cases, the speed of upward and downward flows in the cloud can reach 300 km/h! And the higher the speed of updrafts in a cumulonimbus cloud, the larger the hail.

It would take more than 10 billion supercooled water droplets to form a hailstone the size of a golf ball, and the hailstone itself would have to stay in the cloud for at least 5-10 minutes to get that large. It should be noted that the formation of one raindrop requires approximately a million of these small supercooled drops. Hailstones larger than 5 cm in diameter occur in supercellular cumulonimbus clouds, which contain very powerful updrafts. It is supercell thunderstorms that generate tornadoes, heavy rainfall and intense squalls.

Hail usually falls during strong thunderstorms in the warm season, when the temperature at the Earth’s surface is not lower than 20 °C.”

It must be emphasized that back in the middle of the last century, or rather, in 1962, F. Ladlem also proposed a similar theory, which provided for the condition for the formation of hailstones. He also examines the process of hailstone formation in the supercooled part of a cloud from small water droplets and ice crystals through coagulation. The last operation should occur with a strong rise and fall of the hailstone several kilometers, passing the zero isotherm. Based on the types and sizes of hailstones, modern scientists say that during their “life” hailstones are repeatedly carried up and down by strong convection currents. As a result of collisions with supercooled drops, hailstones increase in size.

The World Meteorological Organization in 1956 defined what hail is : “Hail is precipitation in the form of spherical particles or pieces of ice (hailstones) with a diameter of 5 to 50 mm, sometimes more, falling isolated or in the form of irregular complexes. Hailstones consist only of transparent ice or a number of its layers at least 1 mm thick, alternating with translucent layers. Hail usually occurs during severe thunderstorms.” .

Almost all former and modern sources on this issue indicate that hail forms in a powerful cumulus cloud with strong upward air currents. It's right. Unfortunately, lightning and thunderstorms have been completely forgotten. And the subsequent interpretation of the formation of a hailstone, in our opinion, is illogical and difficult to imagine.

Professor Klossovsky carefully studied the external appearance of hailstones and discovered that, in addition to the spherical shape, they have a number of other geometric forms of existence. These data indicate the formation of hailstones in the troposphere by a different mechanism.

After reviewing all these theoretical perspectives, several intriguing questions caught our attention:

1. Composition of a cloud located in the upper part of the troposphere, where the temperature reaches approximately -40 o C, already contains a mixture of supercooled water droplets, ice crystals and particles of sand, salts, and bacteria. Why is the fragile energy balance not disrupted?

2. According to the recognized modern general theory, a hailstone could have originated without a lightning discharge or thunderstorm. To form large hailstones, small pieces of ice must rise several kilometers up (at least 3-5 km) and fall down, crossing the zero isotherm. Moreover, this should be repeated until a hailstone is formed in a sufficiently large size. In addition, the greater the speed of the upward flows in the cloud, the larger the hailstone should be (from 1 kg to several kg) and to enlarge it should remain in the air for 5-10 minutes. Interesting!

3. In general, is it difficult to imagine that such huge ice blocks weighing 2-3 kg will be concentrated in the upper layers of the atmosphere? It turns out that the hailstones were even larger in the cumulonimbus cloud than those observed on the ground, since part of it would melt as it fell, passing through the warm layer of the troposphere.

4. Since meteorologists often confirm: “... Hail usually falls during strong thunderstorms in the warm season, when the temperature at the Earth’s surface is not lower than 20 °C,” however, they do not indicate the reason for this phenomenon. Naturally, the question is, what is the effect of a thunderstorm?

Hail almost always falls before or at the same time as a rainstorm and never after it. It falls mostly in the summer and during the day. Hail at night is a very rare phenomenon. The average duration of hail is from 5 to 20 minutes. Hail usually occurs where a strong lightning strike occurs and is always associated with a thunderstorm. There is no hail without a thunderstorm! Consequently, the reason for the formation of hail must be sought precisely in this. The main disadvantage of all existing hail formation mechanisms, in our opinion, is the failure to recognize the dominant role of the lightning discharge.

Research on the distribution of hail and thunderstorms in Russia, carried out by A.V. Klossovsky, confirm the existence of the closest connection between these two phenomena: hail together with thunderstorms usually occurs in the southeastern part of cyclones; it is more frequent where there are more thunderstorms. The north of Russia is poor in cases of hail, in other words, hailstorms, the cause of which is explained by the absence of a strong lightning discharge. What role does lightning play? There is no explanation.

Several attempts to find a connection between hail and thunderstorms were made back in the middle of the 18th century. The chemist Guyton de Morveau, rejecting all existing ideas before him, proposed his theory: An electrified cloud conducts electricity better. And Nolle put forward the idea that water evaporates faster when it is electrified, and reasoned that this should increase the cold somewhat, and also suggested that steam could become a better conductor of heat if it was electrified. Guyton was criticized by Jean Andre Monge and wrote: it is true that electricity enhances evaporation, but electrified drops should repel each other, and not merge into large hailstones. The electrical theory of hail was proposed by another famous physicist, Alexander Volta. In his opinion, electricity was not used as the root cause of the cold, but to explain why hailstones remained suspended long enough to grow. Cold results from the very rapid evaporation of clouds, aided by intense sunlight, thin, dry air, the ease of evaporation of the bubbles that clouds are made of, and the supposed effect of electricity aiding evaporation. But how do hailstones stay aloft for long enough? According to Volta, this cause can only be found in electricity. But how?

In any case, by the 20s of the 19th century. There is a general belief that the combination of hail and lightning simply means that both phenomena occur under the same weather conditions. This was the opinion clearly expressed in 1814 by von Buch, and in 1830 the same was emphatically stated by Denison Olmsted of Yale. From this time on, theories of hail were mechanical and based more or less firmly on ideas about rising air currents. According to Ferrel's theory, each hailstone can fall and rise several times. By the number of layers in hailstones, which are sometimes up to 13, Ferrel judges the number of revolutions made by the hailstone. Circulation continues until the hailstones become very large. According to his calculations, an upward current with a speed of 20 m/s is able to support hail 1 cm in diameter, and this speed is still quite moderate for tornadoes.

There are a number of relatively new scientific studies devoted to the mechanisms of hail formation. In particular, they claim that the history of the formation of the city is reflected in its structure: A large hailstone, cut in half, is like an onion: it consists of several layers of ice. Sometimes hailstones resemble a layer cake, where ice and snow alternate. And there is an explanation for this - from such layers you can calculate how many times a piece of ice traveled from rain clouds to supercooled layers of the atmosphere. It’s hard to believe: hail weighing 1-2 kg can jump even higher to a distance of 2-3 km? Multi-layered ice (hailstones) can appear for various reasons. For example, a difference in environmental pressure will cause such a phenomenon. And what does snow have to do with it, anyway? Is this snow?

In a recent website, Professor Egor Chemezov puts forward his idea and tries to explain the formation of large hail and its ability to remain in the air for several minutes with the appearance of a “black hole” in the cloud itself. In his opinion, hail takes on a negative charge. The greater the negative charge of an object, the lower the concentration of ether (physical vacuum) in this object. And the lower the concentration of ether in a material object, the greater antigravity it has. According to Chemezov, a black hole is a good trap for hailstones. As soon as lightning flashes, the negative charge is extinguished and hailstones begin to fall.

An analysis of world literature shows that in this area of science there are many shortcomings and often speculation.

At the end of the All-Union Conference in Minsk on September 13, 1989 on the topic “Synthesis and Research of Prostaglandins,” the institute’s staff and I returned by plane from Minsk to Leningrad late at night. The flight attendant reported that our plane was flying at an altitude of 9 km. We eagerly watched the most monstrous spectacle. Down below us at a distance of about 7-8 km(just above the surface of the earth) as if a terrible war was going on. These were powerful thunderstorms. And above us the weather is clear and the stars are shining. And when we were over Leningrad, we were informed that an hour ago hail and rain fell in the city. With this episode I would like to point out that hail lightning often flashes closer to the ground. For hail and lightning to occur, it is not necessary for the flow of cumulonimbus clouds to rise to a height of 8-10 km. And there is absolutely no need for clouds to cross above the zero isotherm.

Huge ice blocks form in the warm layer of the troposphere. This process does not require sub-zero temperatures or high altitudes. Everyone knows that without thunderstorms and lightning there is no hail. Apparently, for the formation of an electrostatic field, the collision and friction of small and large solid ice crystals is not necessary, as is often written about, although the friction of warm and cold clouds in a liquid state (convection) is sufficient for this phenomenon to occur. It takes a lot of moisture to form a thundercloud. At the same relative humidity, warm air contains significantly more moisture than cold air. Therefore, thunderstorms and lightning usually occur in warm seasons - spring, summer, autumn.

The mechanism of formation of the electrostatic field in clouds also remains an open question. There are many speculations on this issue. One of the recent ones reports that in the rising currents of moist air, along with uncharged nuclei, there are always positively and negatively charged ones. Moisture condensation may occur on any of them. It has been established that condensation of moisture in the air first begins on negatively charged nuclei, and not on positively charged or neutral nuclei. For this reason, negative particles accumulate in the lower part of the cloud, and positive particles accumulate in the upper part. Consequently, a huge electric field is created inside the cloud, the intensity of which is 10 6 -10 9 V, and the current strength is 10 5 3 10 5 A . Such a strong potential difference ultimately leads to a powerful electrical discharge. A lightning strike can last 10 -6 (one millionth) of a second. When a lightning discharge occurs, colossal thermal energy is released, and the temperature reaches 30,000 o K! This is about 5 times higher than the surface temperature of the Sun. Of course, particles of such a huge energy zone must exist in the form of plasma, which, after a lightning discharge, turn into neutral atoms or molecules through recombination.

What could this terrible heat lead to?

Many people know that during a strong lightning discharge, neutral molecular oxygen in the air easily turns into ozone and its specific smell is felt:

2O 2 + O 2 → 2O 3 (1)

In addition, it has been established that in these harsh conditions even chemically inert nitrogen simultaneously reacts with oxygen, forming mono - NO and nitrogen dioxide NO 2:

N 2 + O 2 → 2NO + O 2 → 2NO 2 (2)

3NO 2 + H 2 O → 2HNO 3 ↓ + NO(3)

The resulting nitrogen dioxide NO 2, in turn, combines with water and turns into nitric acid HNO 3, which falls to the ground as part of the sediment.

Previously, it was believed that table salt (NaCl), alkali (Na 2 CO 3) and alkaline earth (CaCO 3) metal carbonates contained in cumulonimbus clouds react with nitric acid, and ultimately nitrates (saltpeter) are formed.

NaCl + HNO 3 = NaNO 3 + HCl (4)

Na 2 CO 3 + 2 HNO 3 = 2 NaNO 3 + H 2 O + CO 2 (5)

CaCO 3 + 2HNO 3 = Ca(NO 3) 2 + H 2 O + CO 2 (6)

Saltpeter mixed with water is a cooling agent. Given this premise, Gassendi developed the idea that the upper layers of the air are cold not because they are far from the source of heat reflected from the ground, but because of the “nitrous corpuscles” (saltpetre) that are very numerous there. In winter there are fewer of them, and they only produce snow, but in summer there are more of them, so that hail can form. Subsequently, this hypothesis was also criticized by contemporaries.

What can happen to water under such harsh conditions?

There is no information about this in the literature. By heating to a temperature of 2500 o C or passing a direct electric current through water at room temperature, it decomposes into its constituent components, and the thermal effect of the reaction is shown in the equation (7):

2H2O (and)→ 2H 2 (G) +O2 (G) ̶ 572 kJ(7)

2H 2 (G) +O2 (G) → 2H2O (and) + 572 kJ(8)

The water decomposition reaction (7) is an endothermic process, and energy must be introduced from outside to break covalent bonds. However, in this case it comes from the system itself (in this case, water polarized in an electrostatic field). This system resembles an adiabatic process, during which there is no heat exchange between the gas and the environment, and such processes occur very quickly (lightning discharge). In a word, during the adiabatic expansion of water (decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen) (7), its internal energy is consumed, and, consequently, it begins to cool itself. Of course, during a lightning discharge, the equilibrium is completely shifted to the right side, and the resulting gases - hydrogen and oxygen - immediately react with a roar (“explosive mixture”) under the action of an electric arc to form water (8). This reaction is easy to carry out in laboratory conditions. Despite the reduction in the volume of reacting components in this reaction, a strong roar is obtained. The rate of the reverse reaction according to Le Chatelier’s principle is favorably affected by the high pressure obtained as a result of reaction (7). The fact is that the direct reaction (7) should also occur with a strong roar, since gases are instantly formed from the liquid aggregate state of water (most authors attribute this to the intense heating and expansion in or around the air channel created by the strong lightning discharge). It is possible that therefore the sound of thunder is not monotonous, that is, it does not resemble the sound of an ordinary explosive or weapon. First comes the decomposition of water (first sound), followed by the addition of hydrogen and oxygen (second sound). However, these processes occur so quickly that not everyone can distinguish them.

How is hail formed?

When a lightning discharge occurs due to the receipt of a huge amount of heat, the water along the lightning discharge channel or around it intensively evaporates; as soon as the lightning stops flashing, it begins to cool greatly. According to the well-known law of physics strong evaporation leads to cooling. It is noteworthy that heat during a lightning discharge is not introduced from the outside; on the contrary, it comes from the system itself (in this case, the system is water polarized in an electrostatic field). The evaporation process consumes the kinetic energy of the polarized water system itself. With this process, strong and instantaneous evaporation ends with strong and rapid solidification of water. The stronger the evaporation, the more intense the process of water solidification is realized. For such a process it is not necessary that the ambient temperature be below zero. When lightning strikes, various types of hailstones are formed, differing in size. The size of a hailstone depends on the power and intensity of the lightning. The more powerful and intense the lightning, the larger the hailstones. Typically, hailstone precipitation quickly stops as soon as the lightning stops flashing.

Processes of this type also operate in other spheres of Nature. Let's give a few examples.

1. Refrigeration systems operate according to the stated principle. That is, artificial cold (sub-zero temperatures) is formed in the evaporator as a result of boiling liquid refrigerant, which is supplied there through a capillary tube. Due to the limited capacity of the capillary tube, the refrigerant enters the evaporator relatively slowly. The boiling point of the refrigerant is usually about - 30 o C. Once in the warm evaporator, the refrigerant boils instantly, strongly cooling the evaporator walls. The refrigerant vapor formed as a result of its boiling enters the suction tube of the compressor from the evaporator. Pumping out gaseous refrigerant from the evaporator, the compressor forces it under high pressure into the condenser. The gaseous refrigerant, located in the condenser under high pressure, cools and gradually condenses, passing from a gaseous to a liquid state. The liquid refrigerant from the condenser is again supplied through the capillary tube to the evaporator, and the cycle is repeated.

2. Chemists are well aware of the production of solid carbon dioxide (CO 2). Carbon dioxide is usually transported in steel cylinders in a liquefied liquid aggregate phase. When gas is slowly passed from a cylinder at room temperature, it turns into a gaseous state if it release intensively, then it immediately turns into a solid state, forming “snow” or “dry ice”, which has a sublimation temperature of -79 to -80 o C. Intense evaporation leads to the solidification of carbon dioxide, bypassing the liquid phase. Obviously, the temperature inside the cylinder is positive, but the solid carbon dioxide released in this way (“dry ice”) has a sublimation temperature of approximately -80 o C.

3. Another important example concerning this topic. Why does a person sweat? Everyone knows that under normal conditions or during physical stress, as well as during nervous excitement, a person sweats. Sweat is a liquid secreted by the sweat glands and containing 97.5 - 99.5% water, a small amount of salts (chlorides, phosphates, sulfates) and some other substances (from organic compounds - urea, uric acid salts, creatine, sulfuric acid esters). However, excessive sweating may indicate the presence of serious diseases. There may be several reasons: colds, tuberculosis, obesity, cardiovascular system disorders, etc. However, the main thing is sweating regulates body temperature. Sweating increases in hot and humid climates. We usually break out in sweat when we are hot. The higher the ambient temperature, the more we sweat. The body temperature of a healthy person is always 36.6 o C, and one of the methods of maintaining such a normal temperature is sweating. Through enlarged pores, intense evaporation of moisture from the body occurs - the person sweats a lot. And the evaporation of moisture from any surface, as mentioned above, contributes to its cooling. When the body is in danger of becoming dangerously overheated, the brain triggers the sweating mechanism, and the sweat evaporating from our skin cools the surface of the body. This is why a person sweats in the heat.

4. In addition, water can also be turned into ice in a conventional glass laboratory installation (Fig. 1), at reduced pressures without external cooling (at 20 o C). You only need to attach a fore-vacuum pump with a trap to this installation.

Figure 1. Vacuum distillation unit

Figure 2. Amorphous structure inside a hailstone

Figure 3. Hailstone clumps are formed from small hailstones

In conclusion, I would like to raise a very important issue regarding the multi-layering of hailstones (Fig. 2-3). What causes the turbidity in the structure of hailstones? It is believed that in order to carry a hailstone with a diameter of about 10 centimeters through the air, the ascending jets of air in a thundercloud must have a speed of at least 200 km/h, and thus snowflakes and air bubbles are included in it. This layer looks cloudy. But if the temperature is higher, then the ice freezes more slowly, and the included snowflakes have time to melt and the air evaporates. Therefore, it is assumed that such a layer of ice is transparent. According to the authors, the rings can be used to trace which layers of the cloud the hailstone visited before falling to the ground. From Fig. 2-3 it is clearly visible that the ice from which the hailstones are made is indeed heterogeneous. Almost every hailstone consists of clear ice with cloudy ice in the center. Ice opacity can be caused by various reasons. In large hailstones, layers of transparent and opaque ice sometimes alternate. In our opinion, the white layer is responsible for the amorphous, and the transparent layer is responsible for the crystalline form of ice. In addition, the amorphous aggregate form of ice is obtained by extremely rapid cooling of liquid water (at a rate of the order of 10 7o K per second), as well as a rapid increase in environmental pressure, so that the molecules do not have time to form a crystal lattice. In this case, this occurs through a lightning discharge, which fully corresponds to the favorable conditions for the formation of metastable amorphous ice. Huge blocks weighing 1-2 kg from fig. 3 it is clear that they were formed from accumulations of relatively small hailstones. Both factors show that the formation of the corresponding transparent and opaque layers in the section of a hailstone is due to the influence of extremely high pressures generated during a lightning discharge.

Conclusions:

1. Without a lightning strike and a strong thunderstorm, hail does not occur, A There are thunderstorms without hail. The thunderstorm is accompanied by hail.

2. The reason for the formation of hail is the generation of instantaneous and huge amounts of heat during a lightning discharge in cumulonimbus clouds. The powerful heat generated leads to strong evaporation of water in the lightning discharge channel and around it. Strong evaporation of water occurs due to its rapid cooling and the formation of ice, respectively.

3. This process does not require the need to cross the zero isotherm of the atmosphere, which has a negative temperature, and can easily occur in low and warm layers of the troposphere.

4. The process is essentially close to the adiabatic process, since the generated thermal energy is not introduced into the system from the outside, and it comes from the system itself.

5. A powerful and intense lightning discharge provides the conditions for the formation of large hailstones.

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