The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) classifies giant hail as stones with a diameter larger than 5 centimetres.<\/p>\n
And while residents of the country’s most natural disaster-prone state<\/a> are no strangers to wild weather, the spate of hailstorms has many questioning if it’s going to become a more regular occurrence.<\/p>\n Mitchelton residents say they found hail the size of their hand on Monday afternoon.\u00a0 (Supplied: Kayleen Gordon)<\/p>\n Has there been more hail than usual?<\/p>\n The BOM’s Shane Kennedy said giant hail had appeared on its severe thunderstorm warnings 10 times since July, which was “unusually active”.<\/p>\n Hail threat rises with climate change<\/a><\/p>\n The frequency of “giant” hail and the number of hail days in a season could increase substantially for multiple Australian cities as the climate warms, a new study has found.<\/p>\n He said about four giant hail warnings would be standard, and this time last year the BOM had issued seven for the region.<\/p>\n But climate scientist Tim Raupach says it’s really just too early to make a call on whether there’s been more hail than “usual”.<\/p>\n The senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales Institute for Climate Risk and Response says there’s “an awful lot of variability between years when it comes to hail”.<\/p>\n “This year seems like it’s going to be a year where we have more events,” he explains.<\/p>\n “But whether it’s out of the ordinary is much harder to judge.”<\/p>\n Hail broke a window in the Brisbane suburb of Keperra when Monday’s storms swept through. (Supplied)<\/p>\n What’s causing all the hail?<\/p>\n Nonetheless, Dr Raupach says the right kind of atmospheric conditions for hailstones are certainly around, and have been on a number of occasions this year.<\/p>\n He says “certain ingredients” \u2013 like moisture in the atmosphere and heating of the surface \u2013 are needed to create hailstones.<\/p>\n “You need a lot of sunlight and you need the atmosphere to be unstable,” he notes.<\/p>\n Giant hail was photographed across south-east Queensland earlier this week. (Supplied: Kayleen Gordon)<\/p>\n Should we expect more storms, and larger hail?<\/p>\n BOM research scientist Joshua Soderholm says it is difficult to say with any certainty what the rest of the season has in store because thunderstorms are very “sensitive” and conditions have to be just right for them to develop.<\/p>\n Queensland is in peak storm season, as seen at Caloundra as the storm arrived on Monday evening. (ABC News: Scott McDonald)<\/p>\n He says storms around this time of year generally start becoming more tropical in south-east Queensland, bringing with them more rain and less hail.<\/p>\n But that hasn’t happened yet, because the south-easterly winds needed for that change, have yet to pick up.<\/p>\n “There’s no clear end in sight, but hopefully it’s just around the corner,” he says.<\/p>\n Large hail caused damage to cars in Esk when a storm hit earlier this month. (Supplied: Jon Betts)<\/p>\n In the long-term, the experts warn that it likely we will see more storms and hail.<\/p>\n Dr Raupach says as the climate changes, it is likely the atmosphere will become more unstable, because it contains more water, and therefore, more energy to release.<\/p>\n But while stronger storms could lead to larger hailstones forming, a warmer atmosphere can also mean hail will melt.<\/p>\n “So, that’s kind of an off-setting effect,” he says.<\/p>\n Some of Dr Raupach’s research<\/a> has predicted the overall frequency of hailstorms to increase in Brisbane in the future, while giant hail is expected to be more frequent in the country’s south-east and south-west.<\/p>\n Any record-breaking hail?<\/p>\n Not yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Giant hailstones of up to 16-centimetres fell in Mackay in 2021. (Supplied: John Caporn)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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