Hailstorm
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A hailstorm is a meteorological event, being a storm in which a large amount of hail falls. The hail is usually around 1/2 an inch in diameter, though in rare cases, hailstones up to 5 inches in diameter have been observed. In the northern hemisphere, they generally occur between May and August, during the afternoon.
Hailstorms, depending on the size of the hailstones, can cause tremendous amounts of property damage, causing losses of crops, injuring livestock as well as people, and causing significant damage to automobiles. Often car dealerships, faced with an entire inventory of cars suffering body damage after a hailstorm, are forced to sell them at drasticly reduced prices. Hailstorms were the seventh plague visited upon the Egyptians (Exodus 9:13–35).
A hailstorm that hit Munich, Germany, and surrounding areas on July 12 1984, caused damage of approximately $ 1.5 billion.
See also
Skeleton Lake. A lake named after 300–600 people were killed by a hailstorm