Prelude To Hail

The top image shows an approaching rain shaft emanating from beneath a severe-warned cell whose tops at this moment were spiking to 45-50,000 feet. The time was 4:55 PM CDT and the place was Reamer Road, just north of Central City Road (County Highway E16) in north central Linn County, Iowa. Highway E16 can be seen in the background at left. This spotting position was about 3.5 miles northwest of Alburnett, and about 6.3 miles west of Central City. About five minutes after the top image was captured, intermittent hail began to fall, some quarter size as seen in the bottom image, gathered on the hood of my car minutes later. The sporadic nature of the hail fall (as opposed to pelting hail) was probably due to the stones being thrown out of the storm cell's updraft some distance.