Weather Flashback

March 2021 - Cement Stones (April 28, 2020)

Summary

These hail-stones were manufactured by a thunderstorm that impacted the Cement area of Caddo and Grady counties in Oklahoma. My spouse and I collected these stones about 10 to 15-minutes after they fell. The stones shown here ranged in size from .50 to 1.50-inches in diameter. The transparency of the stones in this scene range from mostly clear to mostly cloudy. And in one of the stones the presence of multiple stones within a stone (aggregate) can be seen (bottom stone). The transparency of hailstones is mostly a result of whether stones were manufactured more or less by wet or dry growth processes in the cloud; mostly clear stones are more related to the wet growth process while mostly cloudy stones are more related to the dry growth process (includes aggregation). More information about this storm event can be found: here.

Plate 1. Cement Stones. Captured on April 28, 2020 at 7:25pm CDT. Looking down from 34.93°, -98.08°.