HAIL IN STAVROPOL, RUSSIA EARLIER! (credit: Marta Povlen via Denis Lyapkalo via Meteo Europe)

DISCUSSION:  Earlier today, deep convective storms developed over in and around the city of Stavropol, Russia.  As these storms intensified concurrently with increasing daytime heating and regional warm-air advection; leading to increasing instability which helped to bolster the strength of the updrafts within these thunderstorms.  As the strength of the associated updrafts increased this supported the development of larger hail as ice particles remain suspended sufficiently high in the storm in the presence of supercooled water (i.e., water that can remain in liquid-form at temperatures as low as -40°C) and ice particles.  For more interesting high-impact weather content from across Russia, be sure to click here!