I was driving Saturday, April 15, southwest of Springfield, Missouri. Announcements kept alerting me on the radio that severe weather was close by. The weatherman was using words like "ping pong ball-size hail" and "golf ball-size hail." The dark sky indicated to me that the worst weather would be just to the north of where I was heading.

I did end up in high wind, heavy rain and small hail for only a few minutes. I was lucky. These hailstones were what I picked up from a grassy area before they melted.

Hail forms when raindrops are sucked upward into the air high in a cloud, where the temperature is below freezing. The raindrop turns to ice, and other raindrops collect and freeze onto it making it bigger. The highest cloud tops will form the largest hailstones. Eventually, the hailstone will get too heavy and will fall to the ground.