Wow. The possibilities are endless. First thought was hail, but that wouldn't really be a discovery. Will be looking for clues!

Cynthia

Ahh yes - endless possibilities.....so, up near the Canadian border, which does make me think on the weather front. Good one, TM. I am cafuffled. Need clues, big time!

Nancy.

Oh, and TM, thanks for the picture and advice on stone walls. I'll let you know if I pursue my vision! I suspect Nancy's pro advice may be beyond me. Lol.

Still wondering about today's question. Does it have anything to do with fossils? Seems there is is a memory caught in a cobweb in my brain about some discovery, but I don't think it fits your question. Hmmm.

Cynthia

Oh, oh. We have a semantics issue here, and I don't quite know what to do about it. If I clarify it, the answer will be immediately obvious. I think my phrasing is OK, though, so I will leave it to stand as is. This little explanation itself my be enough to do the job. If not, I can always apologize later. :)

TM

I'm going with hailstone unless clues point elsewhere later.

Yes, I think you have done the job. I also just considered rainfall in one hour or something similar, but since my brain is focused on stones I think I will stay with my first thought. Unless of course, your clues lead me elsewhere. ;)

So by 'discovered', you don't mean never seen before, just found a large one at that time?

Nancy.

Nancy, I would say discovered in the sense of " OMG, look at that big SOB!"

TM

Hahahaha.

lol. Gotcha!! So I will go with Bobbie's answer!!

On a happy note, I bought my first fresh local strawberries today - omg indeed. Have made a pig of myself!! Yum. A week late due to not enough sun, but apparrently this will be a good season. Time for Strawberry jam, I say!!

Nancy.

Yes, I will return to my first thought of hail and specifically hail stone.

Nancy, there are few things better than fresh local strawberries! Lucky you.

Cynthia

I think it's safe to say now that you all get

for guessing that it was a hailstone.

I had a follow up question in case the first one was too easy (I think it was). It's a little late for it now, but just for fun, here it is. Before that almost two pound hailstone came crashing to the ground, it had to be up in the sky for quite a while as it grew and grew. How on earth can a chunk of ice that size, or any size, for that matter, not fall to the ground immediately? In other words, what keeps hailstones aloft as they are growing?

TM

Here is a link that might be useful: Hailstone

This post was edited by thinman on Mon, Jun 24, 13 at 8:45

I think it must be up drafts that keep hailstones in the sky so they can grow. The ones that did so much damage in my neighborhood a few years back were about twice the size of a golf balll, puny compared to the record holder.
All summer and fall we heard the sounds of hammers as roofs were being replaced.

Again, I agree with Bobbie - updrafts keep them aloft till they come crashing down. That was an omg big sucker!! The hail I have seen has never been larger than a marble, thank goodness!

Thanks for the fun, TM. See you all next week!

Nancy.

No idea as to why they don't fall. Does it have to do with humidity saturation in the cloud? That's all I got.

Fun question and thanks for the stars, TM. I will be awaiting the answer to your second question- tried weedng some, but lasted only 1.5 hours. The humidity is awful today. :(

Cynthia

I thought that Bobbie would probably get this one right away, and Nancy, you did too! Good job.

Hailstones can grow in a thunderstorm until they get too big for the updraft of wind to support them. Then they fall. The faster the updraft, the larger the hailstones can grow.

For a hailstone to get to eight inches, it turns out that the updraft needs to be about 190 mph. That's pretty fast. In fact, that's fast enough to easily lift a person right up through the clouds.

Cynthia, I just checked the weather in your neck of the woods, and it is awful - not even a breeze. No wonder you didn't last long weeding. It's quite humid and warm here too, but yours takes the cake.

Thanks for playing trivia with me, everyone. Now I have to read the post about Annette. :(

TM

Thanks, TM. It is always fun learning science from you!

Hope everyone (and especially Annette) has a good, uneventful week.

TM, it looks like maybe we will get a storm. Keeping my fingers crossed that we will and things will cool off a bit. I do miss living further north, although I am not sure I could take the winters many of you get! :)

Cynthia

Well, we did get a little storm with just a very little bit of rain and if anything, it has made it feel more like Panama than less. :(

Hot, humid and rainy here!! Feels very equatorial!!

Nancy.

Thanks for the fun this week, TM.

While it has been hot and humid the past three days we have had a breeze making it bearable to work outside. No breeze today so I have been mostly doing inside things. Dumping everything but the spoilable meats from the frig. They will go to the trash tomorrow evening as collection is Thursday morning.

Must have brought home some infested grain as am getting moths so out go all those as well. Also decided to dump old spices and seasoning packets. All those will go in the compost pile.