can reach speeds of up to 180 mph. The longer the rain droplets remain aloft, the more time they have to grow into larger droplets that eventually fall as heavy showers.

Rain droplets that are carried well above the freezing level become supercooled at first then freeze into small hail. A frozen ice nucleus can pick up 0.5 in in size traveling through one of these updrafts and can cycle through several updrafts and downdrafts before finally becoming so heavy that it falls to the ground as large hail. Cutting a hailstone in half shows