Climate change impacts on hailstorms

New research from the University of South Wales (Australia) looked at the potential global impacts of climate change on hailstorms.

Cars became stuck in a massive amount of hail that fell during strong storms in Guadalajara, Mexico, on June 30, 2019.

(Photo/Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, governor of Jalisco)

The study focused on the potential changes to the atmospheric factors that affect hail size and frequency.

These factors include atmospheric instability, temperature and wind shear.

The results of the study varied across different parts of the world due to regional variability in the atmospheric changes from global warming.

Findings.....

A future decrease in hailstorm frequency in East Asia and North America.

A future increase in hailstorm frequency in Europe and Australia.

On average, hailstorms will become more severe due to expected increases in atmospheric instability in the warming world, which can lead to the formation of larger hailstones.

(Tim Creedon via AP)

Dr. Tim Raupach, who was the lead author of the study, explained that there is still high uncertainty in these projected trends because hailstorms are very difficult to measure due to their small scale and rarity, according to the detailed UNSW newsroom report.

Key excerpts from the report......

“If you put out an instrument to capture or measure hail, even in a place where you might expect a lot of hail, you might only get one or two hits on that instrument in a year,” said Raupach.

“If you are trying to look at climate change and long-term trends where you want decades of information, it’s very difficult to collect that kind of information about hail.”

This study was recently published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment.