SOME EXTRAORDINARY HAILSTONES 



21' 



Some Extraordinary Hailstones. 



TRANSLATION FROM [/aSTRONOMIE, BY 

 CHARLES NTEVERS HOLMES, NEWTON, MASS. 



"During the course of a violent 

 storm, M. Quenisset, astronomer at the 

 Observatory of Juvi'sy, now mobilized 

 at Bourget, had the excellent idea of 

 placing within the range of the photo- 

 graphic apparatus, very near some 

 hailstones, a rule divided into centi- 

 metres and millimetres, which gives 

 exactly their size, as we are able to 



Fit;. 109. THE LARGE HAILSTONES. 



judge by the following photograph- 

 (Fig. 109.) We observe that certain 

 of these hailstones measure as much 

 as almost 2 centimetres at their greatest 

 diameter. 



"There fall occasionally some larger 

 hailstones. In his Report upon the 

 Observations of the storms of 1915 

 within the departments of the Gironde 

 and part of the Dordogne, M. F. Cour- 

 tv, astronomer at the Observatory of 

 Bordeaux, points out the following- 

 facts : 



"'On May 4th, 1915. in the Blayais, 

 the inhabitants of Saint-Girons, Saint- 

 Paul (East part) and Generac see their 

 harvests totally destroyed. In this re- 

 gion the hailstones measure two to 



four centimetres in diameter and are 

 violently projected by the wind which 

 is blowing a gale ; man}' windows of 

 the dwellings are broken. 



" 'On the first of August, in the af- 

 ternoon, between 4 and 7 o'clock, some 

 stormy cloud-groups travel over the 

 department of the Gironde in the nor- 

 mal direction South-West to North- 

 East. The storm appears to have had 

 its birth a little to the north-west of 

 Villandraut and bestows upon the 

 town a rather heavy rain, which com- 

 mences with some very large drops; it 

 arrives at Budos around a quarter past 

 five ; the hailstorm zone begins about 

 a kilometre in front of the paragrele 

 (a device to guard against hail), in the 

 south-west direction. Some hailstones 

 fall from 3 to 4 centimetres in diameter 

 resembling big walnuts ; the inhabi- 

 tants have never seen them as large in 

 the region ; the sun is hidden by them 

 as though by the snow; there is almost 

 no wind. The half of the harvest stand- 

 ing is swept off. It is appropriate to 

 point out that the last fall of serious 

 hail at Budos had taken place in 1908 

 and the previous one twenty years be- 

 fore. 



" 'At Gabarnac, the hailstones also 

 reach the size of big walnuts; upon the 

 town thev fall for about two minutes: 

 the inhabitants do not remember hav- 

 ing seen as equally large hailstone-. 

 On the higher ground, the devastations 

 appear more considerable and can be 

 valued at half of the harvest on some 

 estates. 



" 'Within the hailstorm zone all the 

 points are not equally affected, but the 

 hailstones, more or less hard and 

 large, present everywhere the same 

 peculiarity. They appear under the as- 

 pect of fragments of transparent ice ir- 

 regular in form, the greatest part flat- 

 tened ; some are polyhedral with sharp 

 angles. Certain points, such as the do- 

 main 'du Vigneau' and all the slope be- 

 tween 'Yquem' and 'Le Boutoc' seem 

 particularly maltreated. The hail- 

 stones, or, to express it better the 

 pieces of ice, of various forms, attain a 

 size of about 10 cubic centimetres. 

 Manv dormer-windows are broken. At 

 the Chateau d'Yciuem. the person who 

 performs the firing of cfuseee grelifuges 

 is injured on the hand by the fall of a 

 large sharp hailstone. The bolt falls 

 upon the outbuildings of the chateau." ' 



