What The Hail???

[Marc Velasco]

In all my experience with Midwest thunderstorms, _coin_-sized hail was
perhaps the most common denomination of hail, with dime-sized hail being
particularly popular with the clouds and the cloud-trackers.

Common terms: pea-, dime-, golfball-, and baseball-sized hail; although, it
needs be said that baseball-sized hail was rarely reported live, but common
in "big storm" stories.  Lawyers might further say that this list includes,
but is not limited to, the above mentioned terms.

Perhaps the dime-, nickel-, quarter- usages are due to lack of common
spherical objects near those sizes.

On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 9:06 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: What The Hail???
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In 18th-century New England, hail was compared in size to gunshot or
> fowl eggs.  But all spherical.
>
> Joel
>
> At 8/10/2008 04:05 PM, Scot LaFaive wrote:
> >I don't see the unusual aspect of this. In Wisconsin I've heard all
> >sorts of hail sizes: nickel size, dime size, quarter size, golfball
> >size (though spherical).
> >
> >Scot
> >
> >On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 2:36 PM, Doug Harris <cats22 at frontiernet.net>
> wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>
> > > Subject:      What The Hail???
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Just received from the National Weather Service in Albany NY:
> > >
> > > AT 324 PM EDT.NATL WEATHER SVC DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A  SEVERE
> > > THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING NICKEL SIZE HAIL.AND  DAMAGING WINDS
> IN
> > > EXCESS OF 60 MPH.
> > >
> > > That ain't no two-bit storm, but is maybe a Guinness-booker, if it's
> > > producing hail of _that_ size. (I always thought hail was more or less
> > > spherical. Less, apparently, in this instance.)
> > > dh
> > >
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