We never had snow here in Malta, but occasionally we get hail, and yesterday, right in the middle of our Carnival celebration, we got quite a hailstorm. As you can see from the photos I quickly took, the hail were the size of olive and grapes. There were mounds of hail in corners even 4 hours later, and since it was cold, it did not melt rightaway. Hail is a form of solid precipitation, different from what the Americans call sleet.
Hail consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Hail occurs during thunderstorms when a draught of warm air carries water droplets upwards which then freeze at high altitudes. The crystals of ice continue to grow until they become too heavy and fall to earth. Hail can cause serious damage, notably to automobiles, aircraft, skylights, glass-roofed structures, livestock and most commonly, crops.
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