NASA wants your hail photos
Tuesday, March 10, was a particularly trying day of bad weather for residents of Kansas City, Missouri. That evening, hailstones as large as grapefruit pelted homes, businesses and vehicles in the area, causing significant damage to the community.
Although such weather phenomena remain relatively rare, violent storms continue to increase due to climate change. Unfortunately, meteorologists still have a lot to learn, especially about hailstorms. It remains difficult to anticipate the size of ice chunks falling from the sky, and even estimating how hail melts as it travels toward Earth is a challenge.
To improve their understanding and better prepare for future events, NASA researchers are asking the public to contribute to their ongoing hail investigations. And as storm season gears up, there’s no better time to familiarize yourself with the free hail tracking app offered by the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network.
Designed in collaboration with the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the CoCoRaHS Southeast Region (SEaRCH) project relies on volunteer-submitted reports on local hail events. Users can upload storm details, including time, date, location, as well as photos and hail measurements, directly to the CoCoRaHS app.
CoCoRaHS organizers estimate that it only takes five to ten minutes to complete an event, and free training is available through several outlets. Particularly dedicated citizen scientists can also go further. The SEaARCH app also accepts precipitation measurements using a rain gauge which costs approximately $42 to purchase.
Thanks to contributions from volunteers, NASA scientists are now combining hail reports with archived satellite data to develop and refine hail forecast models, as well as ice melt profiles. Merge profiles do much more than improve forecasting capabilities. They allow meteorologists to better estimate how hailstones of different sizes melt over time.
Curious citizen scientists are encouraged to download the app and start submitting their data as soon as they can. Just be sure to wait until a hail storm is completely over before venturing outside to take your measurements. No one wants to get crushed by a cantaloupe-sized ball of ice cream.
The best new PopSci 2025 releases
