Hailstones can grow larger than softballs inside rotating supercells
In fierce supercell thunderstorms, strong updrafts toss ice embryos up and down through rich supercooled water until layered hailstones swell past golf-ball size — sometimes larger than softballs.
Each trip through the cloud adds a new shell of ice. The longer a stone stays aloft, the heavier it grows before gravity finally wins and it plummets.
That airborne factory explains shattered windshields and dented roofs. When radar spots a three-body scatter spike, hail the size of a fist may already be on the way.
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