Every Chaser: Meet the Weather Detective Unraveling the Growing Hail Crisis

I will pursue

Between mid-May and late June, Icechip Storm Chasers explore the Front Range of the Rockies and the Central Plains, often in vehicles fortified against falling ice. Equipped with drones, balloons, and mobile Doppler radars, they enhance methodologies previously perfected by Tornado Chasers.

While one team strategically positions mobile Doppler radars to monitor storms at close proximity, other researchers focus on deploying balloons and utilizing sensors to assess the size and velocity of hail strikes.

Amid various storms, researchers have embarked on the Tempest Path to observe the life cycle of hailstones, utilizing hundreds of ping-pong ball-like devices known as Heilsondos that melt and freeze.

Convection thunderstorms with substantial internal updrafts generate hail by circulating a mix of water and ice crystals into the freezing layer above. Hail typically forms at altitudes between 20,000 to 50,000 feet, where temperatures range from -22 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. The same updrafts can obliterate ailsond at any hail-generating region of the storm.

“By tracking that sensor over time, we can understand the precise path and trajectory that hail follows, at least for some storms,” stated Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University and lead researcher at ICECHIP.

“We anticipate increased instability,” Gensini remarked, with researchers believing this could foster stronger updrafts.

Such powerful updrafts can sustain larger hail for extended periods, allowing ice balls or discs to gain mass before gravity pulls them down.

“If you use a hair dryer and direct it towards the edge, it’s easy to balance a ping pong ball with that airstream,” Jensee described. “But how do you balance a softball? A stronger updraft is necessary.”

Storm modeling indicates that more potent updrafts could increase the likelihood of large hail in the future, even though they may lower the overall chance of hail. Researchers predict smaller hail will diminish, as it possesses less mass and often dissolves before reaching the ground.

“There’s a sort of dichotomy. Yes, there are fewer people around, but warmer atmospheres with very strong updrafts yield even more significant hail,” Jensee explained.

Throughout their field campaign, researchers collected over 10,000 hailstones in dry ice chests to evaluate their computer models against observed growth dynamics.

“The hail data is somewhat concerning,” Jensini remarked about previous records, noting an increase in reports of 2-inch, 3-inch, and 4-inch hail. However, it’s unclear whether this is due to more people chasing storms and discovering larger hail or if the atmosphere is genuinely producing larger hailstones.

Gensini conveyed that the new measurements will enable researchers to correlate airborne conditions with ground findings, leading to enhanced forecasts and reduced economic impacts.

In many regions where Icechip operates, agriculture is prevalent, according to Karen Kosiba, an atmospheric scientist with flexible radar teams at the University of Illinois.

“It influences their crops and machinery, prompting them to seek shelter,” she stated. “Weather holds numerous economic implications.”