HUMAN HAILSTONES

How are hail stones formed and why?

Some storms have violent uplifts of air currents that are swirling upwards over and over again. When hailstones are formed, liquid water is frozen around an ice crystal which acts as the nucleus on which a hail stone is built and they get trapped in these up drifts and instead of falling to earth they travel upwards until they start to fall again and they are caught again by the draughts and sent up once again. As this cycle happens, the ice covers the nucleus over and over, making the droplet into a hail stone.

When the hail is too heavy to be kept up by the updrafts, it falls to earth as heavy hail.

I hope that the explanation is straight forward because it needs to be understood so that you can see how this accident happened. We have very bad hail storms here in Australia and they do a lot of damage especially to the car industry where some vehicles are written off because it is too expensive to repair them.

Hailstorms also damage crops all around the world and in some parts of Italy they send up rockets into the storm in hope of breaking up the stones before they are formed but I think this is impossible.

The heaviest hail stones on record were up to a kilo in weight or 2.2lbs and reported to have killed ninety three citizens in Bangladesh in April 14^th 1986.

THE HAILSTONE ACCIDENT.

On the Wasserkuppe peak of the Rhon Mountains in Germany, four glider pilots died in a freak accident that left all their comrades devastated.

The glider pilots were all part of a glider club that was started on the peak of Wasserkuppe in 1925 by Oscar Ursinus. The club meetings we very popular and glider pilots from all around the world came to experience the famous updrafts on these famous mountains.

In 1930, five glider pilots were launched off by a winch type of affair attached on the back of a truck shown in photos. The weather was bad as there was a very bad storm approaching but the pilots thought they could ride it out but it started to get very windy.

They decided to bail out and parachute to safety letting their gliders go however when they jumped ship at 3500 feet, the updrafts sent them up and up to a height of 6500 feet then dropping down again only to be shot up all over again. The pilots became the nucleus and as they plunged to earth and soared up into the sky, ice started to adhere to their bodies forming them into hailstones.

Eventually when the process finished they plummeted to earth completely covered in ice and smashed into the ground at a terrorifing rate.

Four of the pilots died instantly or maybe even before, leaving one pilot who survived the ordeal, the ice cocoon softening his fall as he hit earth.

His name was Guy Murchie.

I find this very interesting because there is Guy Murchie who was born in 1907 and died in 1997 who wrote some fascinating books on life, THE SEVEN MYSTERIES OF LIFE and other works. He was also a pilot instructor for gliders and aircraft . If he is the same Guy Murchie that fell to earth in 1930, and he was the only one out of fiveto survive, then his works on life and philosophy were yet to come. It makes you wonder doesn't it.

OTHER STARTLING EVENTS

In 1959, the pilot bailed out of his plane when the engine failed 47,000 feet above Virginia. From that distance, it should’ve taken him 13 minutes to land. But when he jumped into the middle of a raging storm, Rankin got caught in vertical air currents that kept him aloft for 45 minutes as he tumbled about in minus-seventy-degree temperatures. Covered in ice and sleet, his body bruised by hailstones, he finally managed to open his chute at 10,000 feet and land safely in a North Carolina tree, 65 miles from where he bailed out.

Sixteen years later, veteran skydiver Mike Mount made a jump 4,500 feet over Maryland, expecting a two-minute ride to the ground. There was a storm brewing at the time, but Mount thought he could steer his way through the darkening clouds. Big mistake.

Soon after he dove out, he got sucked up to 10,000 feet. Again and again, he was swept up and dropped down by frigid, frenzied winds. The skydiver thought about cutting away his parachute so he couldfree fall through the storm, relying on his reserve shute to save him, but he worried he might not be able to see the ground approaching. In the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

After what seemed an eternity, the storm released its grip and Mount landed nine miles from his intended drop zone, cold but unharmed. His wild and bewildering ride had lasted 30 minutes.

With thanks to Rick Gamble

In Australia, I remember once a hail storm that was so heavy that the weight of the stones caused the roof over a local swimming pool to collapse. Other storms have the same effect on most of the people here in Australia and that is to get your car under cover immediately.