50 Prof. Loomis on Hail Storms. 
Why did the hail in the present case attain to such unusual 
size? 
Because of the following circumstances which are unusually 
favorable to its formation. 'The temperature of the air before the 
storm was 90°, and it is my opinion that the dew-point could not 
have been less than 80°; in other words the atmosphere contained 
about as much vapor as it is ever known to contain in this latitude. 
This vapor was suddenly lifted to a region of great cold, and rap- 
idly condensed and frozen. The strong upward movement helped 
to sustain the crystals as they increased in size, until the upward 
force was no longer equal to gravity—or until they escaped from 
the influence of the vortex. Most of the stones would fall in 
five minutes and be of moderate size ; others might be sustained 
ten or fifteen minutes, and attain enormous dimensions. 
How did the hail in this storm compare with the most remark- 
able cases on record. 
There are well authenticated cases of hailstones having fallen 
in England and France weighing half a pound—and even more 
than this—but the accounts of hail stones weighing so much 
as one pound, do not appear to me entirely satisfactory. A mass 
of ice of the specific gravity 0-93, weighing eight ounces must 
contain nearly 15 cubic inches; or would make a cube whose 
edge is nearly 2-5 inches. I have selected a piece of ice which 
was estimated to be about the size of the largest stone which I 
saw fall on the Ist of July, and found it to weigh eight ounces. 
But these large stones of July 1st appeared to me unusually 
white, and may therefore be conjectured to have had a spongy 
nucleus—which would have reduced the weight to perhaps si 
ounces. 
The hail therefore in the present storm was somewhat smaller 
than has been observed to fall in other places. 1 
Since the preceding was written, I have received notice of sev — 
eral remarkable hail storms in different parts of the United States, — 
two of which were so extraordinary that I have added an account 
of them to this paper. 
Hail Storm experienced at Warren, N. H., Aug. 13, 1851. 
My first information respecting this storm was derived from 4 — 
letter from Dr. Peter L. Hoyt, dated Wentworth, Grafton Co., — 
Aug. 3, 1853. The following is an extract from Dr. Hoyt’ — 
etter. 
“Perhaps a brief notice of a hail storm which occurred in this © 
vicinity on the 13th of August, 1851 may be of interest to you: 
This shower, about one o’clock, p. m., passed from the west to 
wards the east over an extent of four or five miles around the 
- Warren. The largest and most hail fell in the north east part of 
