HAIL STUDIES RELATING TO CLOUD PHYSICS 375 
PERCENT OF CROP 
DESTROYED 
O 0-25 
M >25 
: at eee 
| i 
Fic. 6—Hail intensity on August 7, 1953 
Data from only two crops (corn and soy- 
beans) have been plotted on these maps. By 
restricting the plotted data im this manner, 
apparent hail intensity variations resulting 
from differences in hail susceptibility among 
crops is minimized. 
Figure 6 shows variations in hail intensity 
during the storm of August 7, 1953. Examina- 
tion of the figure shows that the regions of 
heaviest damage are scattered along most 
swaths, except for the one in the center of the 
map. This swath had relatively heavy damage 
along a substantial portion of its length, and, 
according to a newspaper account, hail the size 
of baseballs and oranges was observed near the 
end of the swath. The large size of the observed 
hailstones may indicate that the thunderstorm 
causing the hail damage along this swath was 
more severe than the other storms on this date. 
However, detailed examination of the radar 
echoes revealed that at least three thunder- 
storms moved across parts of this hail damage 
swath during the reported hours of hail oe- 
currences and that a single thunderstorm could 
not have produced all the hail. The fact that 
several different thunderstorms each produced 
hail in this area and that the areas overlapped 
in some parts of the swath probably explains 
the higher rates of destruction in this area. A 
more detailed study is being made of the radar 
echoes on this hailstorm day. 
Figure 7 shows the distribution of crop losses 
during the storm of August 9, 1954. Most of 
the hail observed with this storm was the size 
of marbles according to newspaper accounts. 
The rates of damage in individual sections with 
this storm were generally less than with the 
storm of August 7, 1953. 
Studies of hailstorm intensities are compli- 
cated by the fact that there are variations 
among crops in susceptibility to hail and that 
a single erop may vary in susceptibility to hail 
depending on its stage of development. Two 
methods may be used to overcome this margin of 
