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Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below.
All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 3-31-17.
TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO
From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of April 3, 2017.
MUSIC – ~ 9 sec
This week, music called “Storm” by Torrin Hallett, a student at Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio, sets the stage for a storm-related mystery sound. Have a listen for about 15 seconds, and see if you can guess what’s making this sound. And here’s a hint: What high-altitude, icy creation ranges in size from a garden pea to a softball or even bigger?
SOUNDS - ~16 sec
If you guessed hail, you’re right! You heard the sound of small hail hitting a car in Blacksburg, Va., during a brief storm on March 18, 2017. That relatively mild hailstorm did little damage, but annually in the United States, hail typically causes at least hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to property and agricultural crops. Hail forms inside thunderstorms, thousands of feet high in updrafts of warm, human air. There, as moisture rises and cools, water droplets can freeze around particles called ice nuclei. In strong updrafts, a frozen droplet can be held aloft and repeatedly encounter droplets of supercooled water—that is, liquid water below the freezing point—adding more ice and forming a hailstone. A hailstone’s size depends largely on how strong, large, and long-lasting the updrafts are, determining how long a growing hailstone can be supported aloft. Hailstone diameter can range from about the quarter-inch of a garden pea, to the four inches of a softball, to the eight inches of the largest recorded hailstone in the United States, which fell in South Dakota in July 2010. Not all thunderstorms produce hailstorms, of course. But hail of 1 inch or more in diameter is one of three criteria—along with tornadoes or wind gusts of 58 miles per hour or more—that the National Weather Service uses to categorize thunderstorms as severe.
We close with a few more seconds of Torrin Hallett’s “Storm”; followed by about 20 seconds of “Hail Improvisation,” created in March 2017 by Williamsburg, Va., third-grader and hammered-dulcimer student Simon Fass. Thanks to Torrin, Simon, and Simon’s music teacher Timothy Seaman for providing this week’s music for hail.
MUSIC - ~ 35 sec
SHIP’S BELL
For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.
AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
“Storm,” a movement from “Au Naturale,” is copyright by Torrin Hallett, used with permission. Click here to listen to the full version (1 min./44 sec.). In 2016-17, Torrin is a fourth-year student at Oberlin College and Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio, majoring in horn performance, music composition, and math major. More information about Mr. Hallett is available at his Web site, http://www.torrinjhallett.com/.
“Hail Improvisation” was created March 23, 2017, by Simon Fass in a hammered-dulcimer music lesson with Timothy Seaman; used with permission. In 2017, Simon is a third-grader in Williamsburg, Va. Click here to listen to the full version (2 min./20 sec.). More information about Mr. Seaman and his music is available online at http://timothyseaman.com/en/.
Click here for the full version (2 min./22 sec.) of the “Shenandoah” arrangement/performance by Ben Cosgrove that opens and closes this episode. More information about Mr. Cosgrove is available online at http://www.bencosgrove.com.
PHOTOS
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| Small hail pellets on the ground immediately following a one-to-two minute hailstorm in Blacksburg, Va., March 18, 2017, about 6 p.m. |
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| Clouds immediately after short hailstorm in Blacksburg, Va., March 18 2017, about 6 p.m. |
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| Large hail photo from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Severe Storms Laboratory, “Severe Weather 101—Hail,” online at http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/hail/. |
EXTRA FACTS ABOUT HAIL
Hail diameter size comparisons, from the National Weather Service/Sterling, Va., Forecast Office, “SKYWARN® Hail size,” online at http://www.weather.gov/lwx/skywarn_hail:
1/4" Pea Size
1/2" Small Marble Size
3/4" Penny or Large Marble Size
7/8" Nickel Size
1" (Severe Criteria) Quarter Size
1 1/4" Half Dollar Size
1 1/2" Walnut or Ping Pong Ball Size
1 3/4" Golf Ball Size
2" Hen Egg Size
2 1/2" Tennis Ball Size
2 3/4" Baseball Size
3" Teacup Size
4" Grapefruit Size
4 1/2" Softball Size
Hail formation description, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Severe Storms Laboratory, “Severe Weather 101—Hail,” online at http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/hail/:
“Hailstones grow by colliding with supercooled water drops. Supercooled water will freeze on contact with ice crystals, frozen raindrops, dust or some other nuclei. Thunderstorms that have a strong updraft keep lifting the hailstones up to the top of the cloud where they encounter more supercooled water and continue to grow. The hail falls when the thunderstorm's updraft can no longer support the weight of the ice or the updraft weakens. The stronger the updraft the larger the hailstone can grow. Hailstones can have layers like an onion if they travel up and down in an updraft, or they can have few or no layers if they are ‘balanced’ in an updraft. One can tell how many times a hailstone traveled to the top of the storm by counting the layers. Hailstones can begin to melt and then re-freeze together—forming large and very irregularly shaped hail.”
SOURCES
Used in Audio
Stanley Changnon, “Trends in Hail in the United States,” part of the Workshop on the Social and Economic Impacts of Weather, April 2-4, 1997, Boulder Colorado; online at http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/socasp/weather1/index.html (click on Table of Contents to find link to specific talks).
Insurance Information Institute, “Hail,” online at http://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/hail.
C. Knight and N. Knight, “Hail and Hailstones,” pages 924-929 in Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences Volume Three, James R. Holton et al., eds., Elsevier Academic Press, London, 2003.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Severe Storms Laboratory, “Severe Weather 101—Hail,” online at http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/hail/.
NOAA/National Weather Service/Columbia/S.C. Forecast Office, “Hail Awareness,” online at http://www.weather.gov/cae/hail.html.
NOAA/National Weather Service/Storm Prediction Center, “Frequently Asked Questions,” online at http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/ (question 4.2 is “How does the NWS define a severe thunderstorm?”).
For More Information about Hail or Other Severe Weather
NOAA/National Weather Service/Storm Prediction Center, “Storm Reports,” online at http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/today.html; and “Annual Severe Weather Report Summary 2015,” online at http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/online/monthly/2015_annual_summary.html#. At the former site, users can search for preliminary reports across the United States of hail or other severe weather for any given day.
WTVR TV – Richmond, Va., Storms dump hail across Central Virginia, 2/25/17.
RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES
All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html). See particularly the “Weather” subject category.
The following episodes focus on topics related to hail:
Episode 106, 4/9/12 - Weather watches and warnings.
Episode 152, 3/11/13 - Weather balloons.
Episode 342, 11/14/16 - Tornado research via virtual reality.
Episode 358, 3/6/17 - Tornado preparedness.
STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS
The episode may help with Virginia 2013 Music SOLs at various grade levels that call for “examining the relationship of music to the other fine arts and other fields of knowledge.”
This episode may also help with the following Virginia 2010 Science SOLs:
Grades K-6 Interrelationships in Earth/Space Systems Theme
2.6 – identification of common storms and other weather phenomena.
4.6 – weather conditions, phenomena, and measurements.
6.6 – properties of air and structure of Earth’s atmosphere; including weather topics.
Earth Science Course
ES.12 – weather and climate.
The episode may also help with the following Virginia 2008 Social Studies SOLs:
Civics and Economics Course
CE.6 – government at the national level.
World Geography Course
WG.2 - how selected physical and ecological processes shape the Earth’s surface, including climate, weather, and how humans influence their environment and are influenced by it.
Government Course
GOVT.7 - national government organization and powers.
The episode may also help with the following Virginia 2015 Social Studies SOLs, which become effective in the 2017-18 school year:
Civics and Economics Course
CE.6 – government at the national level.
World Geography Course
WG.2 - how selected physical and ecological processes shape the Earth’s surface, including climate, weather, and how humans influence their environment and are influenced by it.
Government Course
GOVT.7 – national government organization and powers.
Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.
