Can it hail in Summer?

Question

It's like 80 degrees today and the sky is blue with hardly any clouds. I noticed what look like small to medium size chunks of ice falling from the sky. I thought it was hail. Is that possible? What are the alternative explanations?

By the way, I don't live in the Midwest, I live in New York City. We don't get tornadoes here, and there isn't a severe thunderstorm.

Answer 1

Yes, it hails during summer thunderstorms all of the time. This article has a good explanation: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/tg/whail/whail.htm

Answer 2

Yes it can hail at any time, many times it occurs with a tornado or the approach of a storm. Just because it is 80 on the surface it may be freezing 1000''s of feet up in the clouds. Some of the biggest hail storms I have seen are hot days when it has not rained for some time then there is so much hail that it makes it look like it snowed out. Put id does not last long as it melts fast.

Answer 3

Hail is formed as raindrops are blown up and then down and then up again adding coats of ice as they are blown into clouds with a below freezing tempeature.
Yes it can hail during the summer, but it does require clouds, and strom system where the ice can go up and down.
The hail is somewhat round, not chunks.

An alternate explanation that I have heard happening is that the ice is from an airline flying over. If the potty empties the liquids freeze. These chunks can fall off and land on the earthssurface. Is it blue at all?

Answer 4

Yeah, im from dallas texas, and it hailed all the time during the summer during a thunderstorm, or a tornado or something. Actually, there is a thunderstorm right now here, and the weather people said that there is a chance of hail as well. I hope this helps!

Answer 5

yes it happens all the time. one of the reasons is instability that feeds the updrafts, the warmer the air is the better chance (given other factors such as wind shear and humidty) that you will get vertical development. the stronger the updraft, the better the chance to get hail. in strong updrafts hail can grow to huge sizes, bigger than softballs.

Hail, especially in supercells occur near the updraft, hail often occurs right before a tornado or where a tornado might form

You can have a severe thunderstom and not have a tornado or strong wind, a severe thunderstorm only needs 1 of these 3
Tornado
winds over 58mph
hail bigger than penny

Answer 6

Those chunks of ice that fall out of the sky with no clouds is not hail, there may have bee an plane, flying at high altitudes causing this.

Answer 7

Yes- It often happens in my area (North central Texas). Hail happens when cool dry air and warm wet air meet, so to speak. In my area it is usually warm when hail occurs- often in the spring.

Hail is ice that forms during rapid updrafts of air during thunderstorms or during a cold front.

The hail stones blow up and down at high speeds collecting more and more layers of moisture that freezes.

Kellie

Answer 8

It's possible. The upper atmosphere, where hail is formed, is quite a bit colder than ground level where you end up seeing it. Ground temperature only effects how long the hail stones last once they're down here, not whether or not they can form.

Answer 9

Of course it can hail in summer.

Just because it is 80 degrees on the surface, the temperature way up where the clouds are is often quite a bit cooler...

Answer 10

That is definitly possible. Hail is a natural phenomenon that's caused by a sudden burst from a could. Anytime you can have a tornado, you can certainly have hail too, no matter the temperature! :).