ICECHIP
@nsficechip.bsky.social
In-Situ Collaborative Experiment for the Collection of Hail In the Plains (ICECHIP). NSF funded field campaign to better understand all aspects of hail. https://icechip.niu.edu/
Learn more about the future of hail and ICECHIP’s contributions to the science in this story from NBC News.
Descubre cómo será el futuro del granizo y conoce las aportaciones de ICECHIP a la ciencia en este reportaje de NBC News.
youtu.be/0Ldi_twCyoo?...
Descubre cómo será el futuro del granizo y conoce las aportaciones de ICECHIP a la ciencia en este reportaje de NBC News.
youtu.be/0Ldi_twCyoo?...
July 19, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Learn more about the future of hail and ICECHIP’s contributions to the science in this story from NBC News.
Descubre cómo será el futuro del granizo y conoce las aportaciones de ICECHIP a la ciencia en este reportaje de NBC News.
youtu.be/0Ldi_twCyoo?...
Descubre cómo será el futuro del granizo y conoce las aportaciones de ICECHIP a la ciencia en este reportaje de NBC News.
youtu.be/0Ldi_twCyoo?...
One of the most cherished parts of #ICECHIP was the large student involvement, with more than 70 students from over 13 universities contributing to the data collection. We thank them for their hard work and what a fantastic experience early in their careers!
July 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM
One of the most cherished parts of #ICECHIP was the large student involvement, with more than 70 students from over 13 universities contributing to the data collection. We thank them for their hard work and what a fantastic experience early in their careers!
After 42 days and 15,000 + miles driven, #ICECHIP completed 24 IOPs across 11 states, including within 75 miles from both the Mexico and Canada borders. This totaled more than 10,000 hailstones collected by our teams while data was gathered on different types of hailstorms!
July 3, 2025 at 12:12 AM
After 42 days and 15,000 + miles driven, #ICECHIP completed 24 IOPs across 11 states, including within 75 miles from both the Mexico and Canada borders. This totaled more than 10,000 hailstones collected by our teams while data was gathered on different types of hailstorms!
Why not one for the road? We are stopping on the South Dakota/Minnesota border this afternoon with radars and our remaining ground assets to gather additional data on anticipated severe hailstorms!
June 28, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Why not one for the road? We are stopping on the South Dakota/Minnesota border this afternoon with radars and our remaining ground assets to gather additional data on anticipated severe hailstorms!
Today will be our “last dance” (officially) with severe hailstorms in North Dakota for the #ICECHIP effort. History was made as we collected, measured, and crushed over 10,000 hailstones across ~20 days. We are excited for the dataset that will be analyzed for many years to come!
June 27, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Today will be our “last dance” (officially) with severe hailstorms in North Dakota for the #ICECHIP effort. History was made as we collected, measured, and crushed over 10,000 hailstones across ~20 days. We are excited for the dataset that will be analyzed for many years to come!
While some teams have left to their respective homes, universities, or organizations, some remain out for the final day of official operations, which will occur tomorrow in North Dakota!
June 26, 2025 at 10:48 PM
While some teams have left to their respective homes, universities, or organizations, some remain out for the final day of official operations, which will occur tomorrow in North Dakota!
As we head into our final days out in the Plains with #ICECHIP, we would like to give a huge thank you to our COW operators (PSU) and COW support (CU Boulder) for the long and hard hours they put in to making sure this C-band radar gathers the best data possible!
June 24, 2025 at 10:02 PM
As we head into our final days out in the Plains with #ICECHIP, we would like to give a huge thank you to our COW operators (PSU) and COW support (CU Boulder) for the long and hard hours they put in to making sure this C-band radar gathers the best data possible!
#ICECHIP makes its final return to eastern Wyoming today in search of large hail that may occur with any given thunderstorm this afternoon. Please tag us with interesting and large hail in this area!
June 24, 2025 at 5:09 PM
#ICECHIP makes its final return to eastern Wyoming today in search of large hail that may occur with any given thunderstorm this afternoon. Please tag us with interesting and large hail in this area!
Today, we anticipate a good case of hail along a cold front in northern Nebraska into southern South Dakota as we move into our 21st day of operations. Please let us know if you find any interesting hail in this area!
Analysis by David Imy (SPC - retired)
Analysis by David Imy (SPC - retired)
June 22, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Today, we anticipate a good case of hail along a cold front in northern Nebraska into southern South Dakota as we move into our 21st day of operations. Please let us know if you find any interesting hail in this area!
Analysis by David Imy (SPC - retired)
Analysis by David Imy (SPC - retired)
The CU Boulder team flies an unmanned aircraft, called RAAVEN, behind hailstorms to sample the hail swath with a bird’s eye view. Flying perpendicular to storm motion gives an idea of swath extent while flying parallel gives an idea of hail evolution over time.
June 22, 2025 at 2:23 AM
The CU Boulder team flies an unmanned aircraft, called RAAVEN, behind hailstorms to sample the hail swath with a bird’s eye view. Flying perpendicular to storm motion gives an idea of swath extent while flying parallel gives an idea of hail evolution over time.
After more than 30 hours of driving from MT to the TX panhandle and back north over the last few days, #ICECHIP teams have returned to the 46th parallel, this time in ND! Ground team and radar deployments on severe storms will occur this afternoon as significant hail is possible.
June 20, 2025 at 3:03 PM
After more than 30 hours of driving from MT to the TX panhandle and back north over the last few days, #ICECHIP teams have returned to the 46th parallel, this time in ND! Ground team and radar deployments on severe storms will occur this afternoon as significant hail is possible.
Hailsondes, launched by the ABoM team, are small styrofoam balls that record data and serve as tracers throughout a storm. The goal is to get them into hailstorm updrafts to derive a 3-D trajectory...
June 18, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Hailsondes, launched by the ABoM team, are small styrofoam balls that record data and serve as tracers throughout a storm. The goal is to get them into hailstorm updrafts to derive a 3-D trajectory...
#ICECHIP is working its way into southern Kansas for the severe hail threat this afternoon! A reminder that if you find very large hailstones and preserve them with date, time, and lat/lon, you can transfer them to one of our teams.
June 17, 2025 at 8:12 PM
#ICECHIP is working its way into southern Kansas for the severe hail threat this afternoon! A reminder that if you find very large hailstones and preserve them with date, time, and lat/lon, you can transfer them to one of our teams.
Similar to yesterday, operations and deployment of ground teams are expected today in central Montana with hailstorms expected to push off the mountains this afternoon.
June 15, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Similar to yesterday, operations and deployment of ground teams are expected today in central Montana with hailstorms expected to push off the mountains this afternoon.
Hailstones ranging from ping pong ball to grapefruit size, collected by our ground teams during the first several IOPs, are currently stored in the cold lab at NSF NCAR awaiting for particle and isotopic analysis!
June 15, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Hailstones ranging from ping pong ball to grapefruit size, collected by our ground teams during the first several IOPs, are currently stored in the cold lab at NSF NCAR awaiting for particle and isotopic analysis!
#ICECHIP teams continue to push north for operations as we head into Montana for the first time today! Scattered storms with severe hail will be possible this afternoon for our teams to collect data on.
June 14, 2025 at 8:21 PM
#ICECHIP teams continue to push north for operations as we head into Montana for the first time today! Scattered storms with severe hail will be possible this afternoon for our teams to collect data on.
We are drifting up to northeastern Wyoming today for the chance of a few hailstorms to move off the Bighorn mountains along I-90. Carefully playing the sparse road network is the key to success today for dual-Doppler coverage.
June 13, 2025 at 6:25 PM
We are drifting up to northeastern Wyoming today for the chance of a few hailstorms to move off the Bighorn mountains along I-90. Carefully playing the sparse road network is the key to success today for dual-Doppler coverage.
Thin-slicing hailstones allows us to take a look on the inside at the structure. One example is this stone with concentric rings of large and small crystals resulting from alternating wet/dry growth.
📸 Thomas Nordstrand
📸 Thomas Nordstrand
June 12, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Thin-slicing hailstones allows us to take a look on the inside at the structure. One example is this stone with concentric rings of large and small crystals resulting from alternating wet/dry growth.
📸 Thomas Nordstrand
📸 Thomas Nordstrand
One of the more fascinating wonders about hail is the size distribution and how that changes across the swath. Our teams have seen many cases so far, such as this storm from Meadow, TX on May 29 where quarter sized hail was falling next to large apple sized hail.
June 11, 2025 at 6:20 PM
One of the more fascinating wonders about hail is the size distribution and how that changes across the swath. Our teams have seen many cases so far, such as this storm from Meadow, TX on May 29 where quarter sized hail was falling next to large apple sized hail.
#ICECHIP makes its way into eastern Wyoming this afternoon in search of storms that produce accumulating hail. These marginal storms with plentiful small hail are not well understood and can be disruptive to traffic.
June 11, 2025 at 4:47 PM
#ICECHIP makes its way into eastern Wyoming this afternoon in search of storms that produce accumulating hail. These marginal storms with plentiful small hail are not well understood and can be disruptive to traffic.
Mobile doppler radar is a key part of the growing #ICECHIP dataset! FARM (Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets) provides two X-band and two C-band radars for scanning hailstorms.
June 9, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Mobile doppler radar is a key part of the growing #ICECHIP dataset! FARM (Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets) provides two X-band and two C-band radars for scanning hailstorms.
Significant hail possible this afternoon in the Texas panhandle and #ICECHIP teams will be on the hunt! Today will be a great case of melting hailstones with a freezing level around 4.5 km.
June 8, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Significant hail possible this afternoon in the Texas panhandle and #ICECHIP teams will be on the hunt! Today will be a great case of melting hailstones with a freezing level around 4.5 km.
Windsond teams from both CMU, PSU, and NIU release windsonds, smaller balloons carrying a styrofoam cup, into the inflow region of storms to sample the low levels.
June 7, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Windsond teams from both CMU, PSU, and NIU release windsonds, smaller balloons carrying a styrofoam cup, into the inflow region of storms to sample the low levels.
The expectation is for a round of storms, similar to yesterday, to produce severe hail in west Texas, especially in the Lubbock area again. We will be operating in some of the same areas as yesterday.
June 6, 2025 at 5:00 PM
The expectation is for a round of storms, similar to yesterday, to produce severe hail in west Texas, especially in the Lubbock area again. We will be operating in some of the same areas as yesterday.
The CMU hailpad teams prepare hailpads every morning before an IOP takes place. The pads are put onto a solid base with brackets. The goal with these hailpads is to deploy them in an array to be hit by different hail sizes across a swath.
June 6, 2025 at 3:50 PM
The CMU hailpad teams prepare hailpads every morning before an IOP takes place. The pads are put onto a solid base with brackets. The goal with these hailpads is to deploy them in an array to be hit by different hail sizes across a swath.