Tornadoes?

Question

why does it usually hail before a tornado??

Answer 1

Hail is an indication of the severity of the thunderstorm.  If it is not severe enough to produce hail, it is usually not severe enough to produce a tornado.

Answer 2

The tornado when forming will pull cold air down into the moist clouds creating hail.

Answer 3

Hail indicates that the thunderstorm is strong.  However, it does not mean it will become tornadic.  Not all thunderstorms that produces a tornado will produce hail anytime during its entire life cycle as a thunderstorm.  

Funnel clouds and tornadoes can form with weak thunderstorms too, but they tend to be not the "classic" type of tornadoes that you usually hear about in the Midwest and are usually much less destructive than the more "classic" types.

Answer 4

The conditions favorable for a tornado often create hail.

Answer 5

Because hail and a tornado require rotation to form.  If you see hail, that means there is rotation in the storm.  The bigger the hail, the longer that piece of hail has been in rotation.  That's why you almost always see hail in storms that produce tornadoes as well.

Answer 6

in a supercell (a large roatating thunderstorm that produces tornadoes) the updrafts are so powerful that if you were in it, you would go up, not down. the point is the updraft is around 100mph, which makes it impossible to rain, so the rain droplets are lifted high into the thunderstorm where the temperature is well below freezing (-15 f) and they freeze. this cylce continues until the hail is too heavy to be kept aloft by the updraft and fallls to the ground as what you know as hail