SUCCESSFUL IBHS HAIL FIELD STUDY YIELDS VALUABLE DATA
Understanding hail and hailstorms requires more than just developing
theories about these phenomena. At some point, researchers have to go
where these natural events occur to gather the evidence needed to test
those hypotheses.
A pair of research teams from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home
Safety did just that this spring. Carefully tracking tornadoes and violent,
severe thunderstorms for many days, the teams completed a unique and
highly successful hail field study as a part of the Institute’s multi-faceted
hail research effort.
Dr. Tanya Brown, IBHS research engineer and occupant of the South
Carolina Wind and Hail Underwriting Association Junior Chair in
Research, and Dr. Ian Giammanco, IBHS research scientist, led two
separate deployments to the Central Plains region of the U.S. in May and
June, driving thousands of miles to measure the mass, dimensions, and
compressive strength of hundreds of hailstones produced by supercell
thunderstorms.
These valuable data on hailstone characteristics will be used in research
projects at the IBHS Research Center, so that scientists can gain a clearer
understanding of how hail damages various building materials, as well
as how to significantly improve risk modeling and weather forecasts.
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Disaster Safety Review | 2013
“We will be doing meticulous lab work to try and recreate what we found in
the field,” says Giammanco. “Our current lab methods are variable in terms
of hailstone hardness and it will take a lot of time to begin consistently
recreating hail with the specific characteristics we have
observed in the field.”