The Bigger The Badder: 19 Major Hailstorms In US History

While your normal interaction with hail may be seeing unbelievable photos of it next to baseballs for comparison, hail storms can cost billions of dollars in damages every year.

The worst year on record for hail damage in the US, 2017, cost $22 billion in damages.

Hail forms when air from a storm brings rain droplets up into extremely chilly areas of the atmosphere. These droplets freeze, and the ice chunks grow bigger and heavier as more water droplets freeze on their surface.

When the hail stones finally get heavy enough, they fall to the ground, or onto the hood of your car if you’re unlucky.

The majority of hail storms occur along "hail alley" in the US — Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. Texas also gets its fair share of hail disasters.