On Tue, 5 Jun 2007 20:26:59 -0500, "Jim Carter"
wrote in
:

No one has mentioned the phenomena where hail is thrown out of the top or
side of the really big CB and may be tossed for miles, and its really not
that uncommon.


I mentioned that I was trained to skirt CBs by 20 miles. Of course,
that is the reason.

It's often difficult to maintain good situational awareness of the
buildups if you are in VMC under a cell's base, or the buildups begin
to merge.




http://www.weather.com/encyclopedia/thunder/hail.html
Hail
Hail is precipitation in the form of a chunk of ice that can fall
from a cumulonimbus cloud. Usually associated with multicell,
supercell and cold front induced squall line thunderstorms, most
hail falls from the central region of a cloud in a severe storm.

Hail begins as tiny ice pellets that collide with water droplets.
The optimum freezing level for the formation of hail is from 8,000
to 10,000 feet.

The water droplets attach themselves to the ice pellets and begin
to freeze as strong updraft winds toss the pellets and droplets
back up into the colder regions of the upper levels of the cloud.
As the attached droplets freeze, the pellets become larger.

Both gravity and downdraft thunderstorm winds pull the pellets
back down, where they encounter more droplets that attach and
freeze as the pellets are thrown, once again, back up through the
cloud.

Hailstones
The more times a hailstone is tossed up and down through the
cloud, the larger the hailstone will be. Hailstones the size of
softballs had many more trips up and down through the cloud than
pea-sized hailstones.

Large hailstones are an indication of powerful updraft and
downdraft winds within a thunderstorm. This is why large hail is
associated with severe thunderstorms.

To create pea-size hail (about 1/2 inch in diameter) winds within
the thunderstorm updraft will generally be around 20 miles per
hour. Quarter size hail (3/4 of an inch in diameter) requires
updrafts of about 40 miles per hour.

Golf ball size hail (1 3/4 inches in diameter) needs updrafts of
around 55 miles per hour and softball size hail, approximately 100
miles per hour! ...