The difference between hail and snow formation

The difference between hail and snow formation is:

1, long live

Hailstones are mostly formed in weather systems with strong updraft, such as supercells, squall lines and strong shear storms. The clouds that can form hail are cumulonimbus clouds.

Because cumulonimbus clouds belong to a kind of cumulonimbus clouds (some classification systems are also classified as direct expansion clouds) and belong to thermal clouds, they need strong thermal factors to support their occurrence and development, and summer usually meets this requirement. Therefore, hail often occurs in summer.

2. Snow

Because of its low mass, snowflakes will melt when the lower temperature is high. Therefore, the formation of snow not only requires the lower temperature to be low, but also requires the lower temperature not to be too high to prevent the snowflakes from melting. Usually this requirement can only be met in winter. There are all kinds of clouds that can snow, such as stratocumulus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus and stratocumulus.

The principle of extended data snow formation

Ice cloud is made up of tiny ice crystals. When these small ice crystals collide with each other, the surface of the ice crystals will heat up and melt, and they will stick together and freeze again. Repeat this for many times, and ice crystals will increase. In addition, there is water vapor in the cloud, so ice crystals can continue to grow through condensation.

Even if it causes precipitation, it often evaporates in the process of falling and rarely falls to the ground. The most favorable cloud droplet growth is the mixed cloud. The mixed cloud consists of small ice crystals and supercooled water droplets. When a mass of air is saturated with ice crystals, it is unsaturated with water droplets.

In this case, ice crystals will grow rapidly. Besides, supercooled water is very unstable. If you touch it, it will freeze. Therefore, when supercooled water droplets collide with ice crystals in mixed clouds, they will freeze and adhere to the surface of ice crystals, making them grow rapidly. When small ice crystals grow up, they overcome the resistance and buoyancy of air and fall to the ground. This is snow.