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

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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

Some places get sufficient upward wind so that the ice crystals repeatedly go through cycles of falling, freezing, rising, falling freezing larger, rising until they’re too large to rise up and fall to the ground. Sometimes (honestly most of the time) the hail actually grows as it’s moving laterally not vertically but just the same it falls when it’s too large and heavy for the wind to continue to carry it.

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