what's the difference between hail and sleet
Hail and sleet are both frozen precipitation, but they form in very different ways and come from very different kinds of storms.
Quick Scoop: Key Differences
- Hail
- Forms in strong thunderstorms with powerful updrafts.
- Falls from tall cumulonimbus clouds.
- Comes as chunks or balls of ice, from pea-sized to much larger.
- Can occur in warm seasons, even when the ground temperature is well above freezing.
- Sleet (also called ice pellets)
- Forms in winter-type systems, not necessarily thunderstorms.
- Starts as snow higher up, melts into rain in a warm layer, then refreezes into tiny ice pellets before hitting the ground.
- Typically happens when surface air is at or below freezing.
- Pellets are small, hard, and often bounce when they hit the ground.
How They Form (Story Version)
Imagine two different weather “factories” in the sky.
- Sleet factory: the layer-cake winter sky
- High up, it’s cold, so precipitation begins as snow.
- It falls into a shallow warm layer , so the snow partially melts into raindrops.
- Just above the ground there’s a deeper cold layer , so those raindrops refreeze into tiny ice pellets before they reach you.
- You hear a faint ticking sound on windows and roads as those pellets bounce.
- Hail factory: the thunderstorm elevator
- Inside a strong thunderstorm, raindrops get sucked up by powerful updrafts, like an elevator.
- They’re carried high into very cold air and freeze.
- They then fall a bit, pick up more liquid water, get thrown back up, and freeze another layer. This loop repeats, building layers of ice like an onion.
- When the hailstone becomes too heavy for the updraft to hold, it falls to the ground—sometimes big enough to damage cars and roofs.
Hail vs. Sleet at a Glance
| Feature | Hail | Sleet |
|---|---|---|
| Typical season | Warm season, during thunderstorms | [5][3]Cold season, winter storms | [1][5]
| Cloud type | Thunderstorm (cumulonimbus) | [7][3]Stratiform/winter storm clouds | [3][7]
| Size | Pea to golf-ball or larger | [7]Small pellets like coarse sand or tiny beads | [1][7]
| Formation process | Repeated lifting and freezing in strong updrafts | [5][3][7]Snow melts to rain, then refreezes before reaching ground | [1][5][7]
| Ground impact | Can crack windows, dent cars, damage crops | [7]Makes roads slick, bouncy pellets underfoot | [1][7]
| What it tells you about the atmosphere | Very strong instability and powerful updrafts | [3]Layered temperature profile (warm air above cold air) | [3][7]
A Few Extra Tips
- If it’s thundering and you see bigger ice chunks: that’s hail.
- If it’s a cold, wintry day and you feel tiny hard pellets that bounce and make roads crunchy and slick: that’s sleet.
In short: hail is the big, storm-built ice from thunderstorms; sleet is the tiny refrozen rain pellets from layered winter air.
TL;DR: Hail = big ice balls from thunderstorms and strong updrafts; sleet = tiny ice pellets formed when snow melts to rain then refreezes in a winter storm.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.
