80 degrees outside and its raining with hail?

Question

how is that possible? my entire front lawn is covered with white ice balls and its practically hot outside.

btw, i live in atlanta, georgia.

Answer 1

Why, what is so surprising about it? Hail forms ONLY in warm weather. You rarely ever get hail in cold weather. The ice pieces you get in cold weather are called sleet and are totally different.  A lot of people mistake sleet for hail, please don't make that mistake. What you are seeing outside is genuine hail.

I have seen hail fall even at 90 degrees. 80 degrees is not exactly an oven, you know. It will take several minutes for large hailstones to melt. They form at high altitudes where it is well below freezing.

If it is cold outside near the ground, there is not enough energy in the atmosphere to form hail. I get very annoyed when it is 36 degrees out and someone says "oh look, it's hailing!". It's NOT hail in that case! It's sleet!

Hail in warm weather thunderstorms is anything but rare. It's very, very common, especially between 70 and 85 degrees F.

Answer 2

wow. thats odd. is it sunny and hailing?

i think its probably because of global warming?

Answer 3

that's tornado weather, sweetums. turn on the weather channel and get somewhere safe.

Answer 4

Thunderstorms that have a strong updraft keep lifting the hailstones up to the top of the cloud where they encounter more supercooled water and continue to grow. The hail falls when the thunderstorm's updraft can no longer support the weight of the ice or the updraft weakens. The stronger the updraft the larger the hailstone can grow.

Answer 5

it has to do with the cold and warm weather fronts, this is rare, but it does happen, email if u wan to know more

Answer 6

global warning? i really don't know sorry:]

Answer 7

I guess some one here must think your are lying because they have never seen this. This is a really weird response. It doesn't really help answer the question.

Happens a couple times a year during the summer in vegas/henderson.

Really hot at ground level. Storms in the area. Moisture gets carried a lot higher then it normally does because it is really hot. The rain freezes and falls. The updrafts are so strong at 30,000 feet (or whatever) that the frozen rain can get cycled up and down a couple times gaining more and more weight until it over comes the updraft and falls to the ground. It falls fast enough through the warm layers of air that it makes it to the ground.

Answer 8

It doesn't sound very realistic, but since the hail stones form at the high atmosphere and the warm air may be because the cloud of warmth is trapped in whatever valley you are in, I guess it may be possible, but I seriously doubt it since it is immensely rare.

Maybe there are other reasons. Warm air rises. Cold air drops. I should think that this is impossible, since if it is warm, then it should rise. Maybe it is a sign of an atmospheric disturbance...a tornado or something.

It shouldn't have anything to do with global warming, by the way. I strongly believe that this could be tornado weather.

Answer 9

Sounds like a tornado may be coming.   A good sign would be if everything turns a yellow hue (I lived in an area that used to get hit with tornadoes).  I now live in Maine, we had the same type of thing happen here yesterday, 74º, sun and hail.  No tornado though, but it became very, very cold after the mini-storm.