Writing Rural With Alley

Story Smithing: Hail

• Alley

Share episode

What damage can hail do to your character or their property? Does hail mean a tornado is coming? How can hail impact a garden? How can your character protect their garden and home from hail? What will your character need to do if they are outside and it starts hailing? Find out on this episode. 


Send us a text

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to help support the creation of this work or would like access to unique membership perks, you can do this and more at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/writingruralwithalley.

What damage can hail do to your character or their property? Does hail mean a tornado is coming? How can hail impact a garden? How can your character protect their garden and home from hail? What will your character need to do if they are outside and it starts hailing? Find out on this episode. Welcome to Writing Rural with Alley, the Fiction Writers Weekly Inspirations Station for Rural Life and Lifestyles from historical to post-apocalyptic, helping you bring your rural stories to life. I'm Alley, and this is episode number 67, hail. Stick around to the end to find out all the ways things could possibly go wrong. Now, let's get into this. Hail, sometimes called hailstones, are balls of ice that fall from the sky. The weathermen call it a form of precipitation. And while technically true, most people would never think of hail as precipitation unless it was pointed out to them. Hail is formed in thunderstorms when strong updraughts of wind push raindroplets into extremely cold areas above the Earth. They freeze and start to fall, but the updraught keeps pushing them back up, catching a little more moisture on them each time until they are too big for the wind to push up anymore, and they fall to Earth. This can cause hail to have uneven freezing. Some can be round and smooth while others are spiky and bumpy. These updraughts are typically in thunderstorms. They are often associated with tornadoes, but can form even when there is no tornado. Some of the updraughts are up, like the name says, but they can also be sideways draughts of air depending on how the air movement is within the storms. This means a smaller hail can be thrown further away from the updraught than a large hail. It also means that hail can fall sideways, and this can be dangerous, but more on that soon. The size of hail can vary greatly, but often has a mixture of sizes when it actually falls. These can be from pea size, which is about one-fourth of an inch, or 0. 635 centimeters up to grape fruit size, which is four and a half inches or 11. 43 centimeters. Most commonly, hail is reported at three-fourths of an inch or smaller. That is 1. 905 centimeters or under. Although the largest hailstone on record, as of April of 2024, when I'm recording this, fell in South Dakota in 2010 with a diameter of 8 inches or 20 centimeters and a circumference of 18. 62 inches or 47 centimeters and weighed 1 pound and 15 ounces. In my area, Tornado Alley, we usually get a dozen or more hailstorms each year with anything from pea size to roughly one inch. Usually a mix of sizes. Sometimes we get up to golf ball size hail, and every few years we get something bigger. I have only replaced car windows once, and a second storm that year didn't break the car windows, but we did have to replace all the shingles on the roof. Now, as impressive as that sounds, we are not even in the worst hail part of the US. There is an area in Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming called Hail Alley. I did not know that until I was researching for this episode. Apparently, they get more hail than anywhere else in the US. However, they are not alone in the hail damage. According to a quick Google search, China, Russia, India, and Northern Italy all have high amounts of hail damage. I did not expect Italy to be on that list. You learn something new every day. Now I hear you,"but Alley, what damage can hail actually do other than to a car window?" I'm glad you asked. It on the size of the hail. Pea sized tail can cause wear to roofs and things like this. This size is also the type that likes to fall in huge amounts together. I have seen many times over the years that this type is covering the whole ground in inches deep of hail in the middle of summer. Well, that doesn't sound bad. This can be devastating to crops. If your character is depending on these crops to feed their family that winter, they have just lost a lot of food that could have been grown. If they're a farmer in modern times, this could cause them to lose their income. Sure, in the US, we have things to help with that, but not everywhere does. Hail from one inch to one and three-fourths inch in diameter, basically the size of quarters of the golf balls, fall under minor damage. Keep in mind that the damage to crops goes up with each size. This can cause damage to roofs, shingles, and make leaks, can cause holes in grass roofs, can leave dents in the car's roof or body that can be so extensive that the car insurance companies will total the car, meaning that the repairs would be more expensive than what the car is worth. They can also shatter or break the windows. If they hit a person or animal, they can leave severe bruising and even fracture bones. Hail from one and three-fourths inch up to two and three-fourths inch in diameter, basically the size of golf balls up to baseballs, fall under the moderate damage. I'm not sure who thought of this rating, but I think they need to rename it as hail of this size can cause catastrophic damage to cars, buildings, and any people or animals unfortunate enough to be caught out in it. It can strip the siding off of homes because it batters them into so many pieces. I've had them leave golf ball-sized holes in my hardwood picnic table and wood home siding. If a person or animal were hit by this size, it could potentially be fatal. This can destroy orchids and baseball-sized hail has even been reported going through roofs of homes. There are bigger sizes, but thankfully, they are rare. As you can imagine, the danger would be worse. These have been reported in the local news stations around the US to have gone through car roofes, through metal roofes, through shingles, and the wood decking underneath, killed the cattle, and even caused severe and extensive damage to concrete and masonry. So now that we know how destructive and potentially deadly hail can be, let's cover what your character should and shouldn't do if they encounter hail. Keep in mind that while they should or should not do something, these are characters, so we can make them do dumb things, or at least things that are human instinct. Do we really have to tell you guys that running out into a hail storm is a dumb idea? Because it is. If your character is in a home or building when it starts to hail, they should move to an interior room, stay inside, away from the windows and doors that hail could potentially come through. If they are in a building that has more than one level, they should move to the lowest level of the building. If your character is inside a vehicle or tractor cab, they should pull over to the side of the road or in the case of tractors, stop. They should not drive in hail. If possible, move away from windows by laying down on the floorboard or laying down in the seat and turning their face toward the seat. If they have blankets, they should cover up and shield themselves from the glass. Okay, let's be real. Who has a random blanket in their car unless it's winter? They're more likely to have a jacket, purse, box, gym bag, or something like that that they could use to shield their head and eyes from potential flying glass if it shatters. Keep in mind, it will not shatter every time. If they have little kids, they will cover the children with their body to shield them. This is just a human instinct, and even if the person is not a parent. If a person is unfortunate and is outside when the hailstorm starts, they will need to run for cover. This is a human instinct because even pea-size hail hurts to be hit with. I know. I've had to dart through it to get inside before. Which, going inside a building home, barn, shed, woodshed, car, truck, tractor, or anything with a roof, even the dog house will be better than standing out in the hail. However, we're writers, and torturing our characters is what we do for fun. I mean, for a good story. Yeah, that was it. Let's say your character is in the middle of a field and there's no shelter of any kind nearby. Their first instinct might be to run under a tree for shelter. However, hail comes with storms, and storms have a lightning. Lightning likes to hit whatever is tallest, which could be the tree that your character is standing under, meaning they are about to get electrocuted. Talk about a bad day. Now, let's say there are no trees, only a field. They will need to do their best to take up the smallest area possible and protect their head. If they have a bag, put it over their head. I even see in my Google search to put a shoe on your head. Yes, I heard the laughter of that pun. Most fatal hail injuries comes from above the head. Also, remember that like with flash floods, it's best to stay out of culverts and low-lying areas. These can fill quickly with the water from a thunderstorm, and flash floods can be deadly if your character is caught in them. I have a whole episode on flash floods if you'd like to learn more. A few extra tidbits. There is something called a hail net that is placed over crops to protect from, you guessed it, hail. These are usually held above the plants to give them plenty of room to grow. Historically, and I assume in the Apocalypse, people used to throw blankets jackets or whatever they could over their garden crops if it started to hail. Yes, they took a beating to get them out there, but many knew that these crops were the difference between eating and not eating that winter. Another thing that is common in history and would likely make a comeback in the Apocalypse are shutters. Shutters used to be made of hardwood and would be closed over the window to protect the glass from storm damage such as hail. Modern shutters are still made but use more for looks than function nowadays. However, anything is better than nothing when protected glass. Of course, all this makes me realize how vulnerable a glass greenhouse would be to hail. Historically, hailstones a nice icy treat for people to enjoy in the hot human months. Okay, I know that sounds odd, but imagine being in the heat of the summer if you had no air conditioning of any kind and then a bunch of ice shows up. Well, this is something done in the past, and even in some places today, it's important to remember that hail forms around a speck or specs of something. This could be pollen, pollution, dirt, volcanic ash, or more. If you're writing post-apocalyptic, will the hailstones be formed around something that is radioactive. An interesting idea.

Fun fact:

in the United States alone, hail causes roughly $1 billion of damage annually. And now for everyone's favorite part, what could possibly go wrong? Before we get into the best part, if you enjoy this podcast, I hope you will take a minute to follow, rate, and review on your favorite podcast platform. And if you're listening on YouTube, subscribe and hit that like button. Drop me a comment. I love to hear from you and answer questions. Don't forget to share with a friend. As always, you can find this episode's show notes and helpful links to learn more on my website, alleyhart. Com. And now for everyone's favorite part.

Likely to go wrong:

your character's vehicle has its window shattered by hail.

Also likely to go wrong:

your character's home is pelted with hail just before it is hit by a tornado. Your character will need to have taken cover or this could be deadly.

Possible to go wrong:

your historical character has never seen hail before. When they encounter it, they believe it is the end of the world and they are going to die.

Also possible to go wrong:

your character is driving when it starts to hail. Their windows shatter and they are cut with flying glass. your character's vegetable garden is destroyed in a hailstorm. They must find another way to get enough food stored before winter or starve.

Unlikely to go wrong:

your character is living in a grass hut. A hailstorm hits and the hailstones come through the grass roof pelting them.

Also unlikely to go wrong:

your character's shingles are severely damaged by hail. They only find out it was damaged when the roof starts to leak. your character's pet was outside doing its business when the hail started falling. They could be severely injured. Improbable, but still technically

in the realm of possibilities:

your character is caught outside in a bad hailstorm and is hit in the head with a large piece of hail. This could be deadly. Also improbable, but still technically your post-apocalyptic character experiences a hailstorm on a hot summer day. They decide to use the hail to cool a drink. They unknowingly ingest radioactive particles and soon start to show signs of radiation poisoning. Also improbable, but still technically your character's mobile home is completely destroyed by softball-sized hail. Thanks for listening. Until next time, happy wordsmithing!