(WHNT) — Storms rumbled through the Tennessee Valley on Thursday, producing frequent lightning, gusty winds, heavy rain, and hail. In some places, the hail was up to two inches in diameter!
Russellville saw a storm that produced two-inch hail, Cherokee saw 1.75-inch hail, and Athens saw 1.25-inch hail. Other places that had hail included Moulton, Hartselle, and New Market, where hail sizes ranged from one inch to 1.25 inches in diameter. There were many other places that saw hail in the Tennessee Valley, too, as severe storms moved through.
Hail forms when you have water droplets freezing high up in the atmosphere and strong updrafts in thunderstorms, helping to make them grow bigger. The hailstone will get bigger as the updraft continues to push the hail up and down within the storm cloud. The hailstones continue to grow by colliding with supercooled water droplets, which are droplets that remain liquid even though the temperature is freezing.
Once the updraft weakens, the hail falls back to the ground. Hail forms when you have colder air aloft in the atmosphere, and the conditions were just right for hail formation on Thursday afternoon and evening…