How big...?

Question

How big is large hail? Golf ball sized, base ball sized. Because the weatherman said: Some storms could be severe, with large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain. And is damaging winds 60 mph? How much is heavy rain?

Answer 1

Golf ball size hail is considered large hail.  Baseball size hail is very rare.  Weather men always say all that stuff is possible but it very rarely happens. They just say it's possible because if they don't mention it, and someone's car gets pounded with large hail, there will be a problem. Heavy Rain is considered a vertical velocity of roughly 40 yards a second.  60mph winds can knock over small trees but that's about it.

Answer 2

In official weather observer terms, large hail is over 1/4" which isn't very big as far as hail in strong storms go.  If hail over 1/4" is observed, then it is officially noted that 'large hail' fell.  But truly damaging hail begins when it gets to be about golf ball sized.

When hail is 7/8-1" it is called 'quarter-sized' hail.  "Golfball-sized" hail is 1.75".  Tennis ball-sized hail is 2.5"  Baseball-sized hail is 2.75" and grapefruit-sized hail is larger than 4".  THAT'll do some serious damage and can crash through people's roofs.  Golf ball-sized hail and above is serious and can do really major damage to cars.  People have been killed by baseball-sized hail or larger.

Heavy rain is technically rain that falls at a rate of 0.3"/hour.  It's not a big deal if it only lasts for 10 minutes.  But sometimes rain falls at a rate of over 2" to as much as 5" per hour and it doesn't take long for that to cause serious problems.  It's more common in slow-moving summertime thunderstorms and can lead to flash flooding.  It can also reduce visibility to less than 1/4 mile so along with hydroplaning makes driving very dangerous.

The upshot is that what the weatherman is saying doesn't really tell you that much and is not very technical.  All it says is that it's a potentially damaging/dangerous situation.

Answer 3

Cats&dogs rain.