Eli5: why some places get snow and others get hailstorm.

277 viewsOtherPlanetary Science

I live in a city that has never had snowfall but we do witness atleast one hailstorm every winter. Just 100 kilometres north of my city is where it generally snows in winters. Could someone explain me why this happens?
I am assuming that it is the water vapour that condenses to become rain and if the temperature goes below a certain degree, it freezes to become snow/hailstone. Please explain further.

In: Planetary Science

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

in the simplest way, what falls depends on how long it stays up in the sky, if pressure waves from below keep pushing it up, usually water turns into snow, but if the wind is still too strong for the flakes to fall, they will freeze and turn into hail. Even hard winds pushing it sideways can get it to stay up longer.

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