Driving Through a Hail Storm Is like Getting Hit by 1,000 Baseball Bats a Minute

Well, everyone knows that hail is frozen water - that part is obvious - but so are snowflakes, and they are cute and gentle with our vehicles' bodywork. What makes hail so special? First of all, it can only occur during storms, and that's because the strong updrafts they generate are pivotal in its formation.

These masses of air moving upward collect water droplets and take them high into the atmosphere where the temperatures go below freezing level. As they freeze, more water can adhere resulting in bigger chunks of ice, and more tears for anyone caught with their car out in the open.

Eventually, the ice particles become too heavy for the air currents and they drop on the ground, becoming responsible for over $1 billion in vehicle insurance claims each year in the U.S. alone. If you're lucky enough to live in an area that's not prone to this phenomenon, you might have no idea what it's like to sit helpless while your beloved vehicle gets pelted with golf ball-sized pieces of ice every second or so.

Unless you have an instant pop-up tent you can deploy over your car without getting out (don't laugh, they do exist), there is nothing you can do about it. In fact, you should be grateful to be inside a vehicle, because as bad as those baseball bats hitting the bodywork of your car feel, they would feel even worse across your head or torso.

This video depicts a very violent storm that happened last week in Denver. The driver's almost complete silence (he does curse a few times) speaks for itself as to how weak we are in front of nature's more severe phenomena. Our cars included.