One of the biggest impacts of thunderstorms and severe thunderstorms that we talk about here in Oklahoma is hail and hail can get up to, you know, many different sizes. So we're going to talk about that and how that forms. Thanks for joining me on K C dot com. I'm meteorologist Taylor Cox. So let's talk about some of these strong thunderstorms that we could see that could produce hail. Strong thunderstorm needs an updraft and an updraft is basically *** corridor of air that pushes up into the thunderstorm and helps it to grow. So that's whenever you get some of those over shooting tops, some of those anvil clouds. This is often with some of the most severe thunderstorms that we get here in Oklahoma carried in this updraft is range droplets that will run into super cooled rain droplets in the upper levels of this updraft. So it's cold up here. It's below freezing. This is where the ice forms, but it gets caught in this loop between the updraft and the downdraft and it basically circles around and around until these hailstones they grow and grow, collecting more water and refreezing it onto the ice onto the hailstone until it gets too heavy and the updraft can no longer sustain it. So what happens at this point if the updraft or maybe the hailstone gets large enough is it falls to the surface? And that's whenever it can create damages at the surface. And that's whenever we really need to be keeping an eye on those storms. So let's talk about some of these hail sizes here I mentioned as this hailstone goes through this circle and grows and grows and grows in this cycle. We can get some pretty impressive sizes out of this. So anything that is considered smaller than *** quarter is considered non severe, anything larger than *** quarter is severe. So we say severe thunderstorm warning for *** quarter size hail. That's what we mean here. This can get up to ping pong ball sized hail, tennis ball sized hail and even softball sized hail. Actually, the largest hailstone ever recorded was just short of the size of *** bowling ball. It was *** little over seven inches, which is pretty impressive. So here's what we see, we see these large hailstones and you can actually see the growth of the hail in some of these pictures. If you really look at *** hailstone, you can see these rings being formed. And that really gives you an idea of the life cycle of this hailstone. It shows you how many times it went through that loop. So what we're seeing here is different growth processes. We have *** wet growth and *** dry growth. The wet growth will be that very clear ring. You can almost see straight through that, but the dry growth will be *** little bit fuzzier. That means that we have some water, little air bubbles trapped in there. Other things can get trapped into hailstones as well, including dust and dirt, maybe even little insects. And if the updraft is strong enough, it can take little bugs and creatures up there as well. Like we've seen frogs getting recorded stuck in these little hailstones. So, of course, whenever you see hail in the forecast, you need to keep an eye on it, you need to make sure that you stay away from all windows. Anything over two inches in size does have the potential to break *** window. And then if you add the wind into that as well, you know, you could get down to an inch and *** half or maybe an inch and three quarters the size of *** golf ball. If you have some pretty wind driven storms, of course, stay weather aware and for more weather updates, visit us at K dot com.