Ice is more dense. Then how can it store in clouds and some times along with rain hail storms occur?

Question

Generally ice got weight. As a rule it can not be stored in air. Then how can it be there in clouds. During rain, sometimes, there is hailstorm. How is it possible. It may look silly, but when I have observed raining yesterday I had this doubt. Nothing can be stored in the air due to gravitational pull of the earth. Clouds are less weighed and hence they stay in air. But hail storsms? .......

Answer 1

It is not stored in clouds. Water in the form of a gas is stored in clouds. The gas condenses to fom water and then it rains. Snow and hail are formed by the water freezing on the way down, not while it is still in the clouds.

Answer 2

Everything falls in the atmosphere, due to its weight. However, there is a drag force that depends on the shape of the object and its speed. When these are equal, an object has reached its terminal velocity and will not accelerate. The terminal velocity for cloud droplets and ice crystals is smaller than about 1 cm/s. This velocity is easy to maintain in even the weakest updrafts. Thus, clouds are always falling, but updrafts keep them suspended.

Hailstones grow by riming, where supercooled water droplets freeze onto an ice particle. In order for hail to form, the cloud must be tall, have a lot of supercooled water, and a strong updraft. Updrafts must be VERY strong to generate hail. For example to support hail of a 1/2" in diameter, you need updrafts of over 45 mph! That kind of updraft only happens in very strong storms, so most rainstorms don't produce hail.

Answer 3

Clouds are formed from condensed evaporation. They appear white because they take on a crystalline structure, frozen water vapor.
Clouds occurs when updrafts of warm evaporated water reach high into the cooler climes of the upper atmosphere. As the vapor rises it condenses out and freezes and forms ice crystals. We see these as clouds.
Constant evaporation creates updrafts(hot,moist air rises)These updrafts are able to suspend water(crystal or vapor).
Constant and consistent reupdrafting of the same droplets allow them to form thunderheads, thunderstorms and hailstones (and sometimes, with the interaction of the jet stream winds pushing another air mass 90 degrees or so perpendicular to the prevailing winds the storms rotate and form tornadoes.)
The more the droplets are updrafted the larger they become due to collisions with other hailstones and additional water vapor until they reach a point that the updraft can no longer support the weight then they fall to earth as hail.

Imagine how strong the updraft must be to support a softball sized hailstone.

Gravity eventually overcomes all but, updrafts of warm air are what suspend hail.

Answer 4

Hail is formed in clouds by an updraft in a thunderstorm which pushes hail, which has begun to form on a dust particle or other small particle, upwards. The updraft continues to send the hail up and down through the storm letting the hail become more and more layered with ice, once the hail is to big to be held up by the updraft it falls. Hail can be as small as BB's, or as big as grapefruits, the larger ones can cause great damage and kill people.

Answer 5

The hail is formed by the cold front that produced the rain in the first place and the cloud freezes and it produces hail.

Answer 6

"Kansas", the land of Ah's. Have you stood in the middle of an open field when the elements are raging and witnessed the utter power of two tornado's, approaching both from the left and the right of you?. The thunder rumbling, the lightening flashing, the clouds churning, yet the wind and the rain have become stilled and have subsided. Caught in the eye of the storm. The utter magnificence of what man calls mother nature. It has been said that she can heal and she can destroy, at her leisure. The power behind such force is unimaginable. Yet she bows when confronted by the One that created her. Her power is under dominion by that "One" which man calls, "The Supreme Being". To experience this, with arms raised in prayer and see the ensuing storm part and dissolve is a most beautiful and humbling event. Having spent some time with "Indian Medicine Men", I knew that such things were possible, from the stories brought forward through thousands of years of oral tradition, within the Native American Indian culture. We live in an age when many humans are filled with doubt. "Faith" is the only thing that can remove mans doubt. The elements (rain..etc) you have mentioned above are fullfilling their duty. It is time for man to fulfill his long awaited duty, and observe the elements perform their specified tasks. *Not an answer to your question, but this answer surfaced from within my heart. Thanks for the question, and the memories of times past! *(Shine on my friend, Mr Sun, I enjoy the warmth.) "Peace be always with you."

Answer 7

Updrafts. Hailstones form when updrafts lift raindrops high enough, quickly enough, to freeze. Turbulence in the updrafts can lift small hailstones many times, allowing them to grow to the size of golfballs or even baseballs.