Pauline Gagan, age 11 , of Ramona, Okla.

Why are hail stones different sizes?

Every hailstone has had many adventures. A big hail stone has had more adventures than a small one. Chances are, it was formed in a fiercer storm. All hail stones begin in the wild confusion of stormy air currents way above the ground. Most are formed in heaving thunderheads.

Up there the wind is blowing in all directions. Some air currents are warm, others are freezing cold. The hail stone may gel first as a rain drop. But before it falls all the way down it is whisked aloft on a rising current of warm air. Higher up it freezes in the cold. It becomes a pellet of ice and starts to fall again. The warm air below melts a little of its icy crust.

Then another rising current whisks it: aloft again. There it freezes a second time. It may add a new jacket of ice around itself. This time it may fall right down to earth as a small hail  stone, but it may not. It may be whisked up and down, up and down four or five spare times.  Each time it adds a lap of ice to itself, growing larger all time. The longer it staff up, tossed hither and thither, the larger it grown.