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Is golf ball-size hail expected to increase due to climate change?

Coloradosun · · 189 words · By Matthew DeFour; Wisconsin Watch
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What to know about Is golf ball-size hail expected to increase due to climate change?

Climate researchers predict storms that produce golf ball-size or larger hail will become more frequent, thanks to climate change.

Claims checked 6
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center83%
Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Climate researchers predict storms that produce golf ball-size or larger hail will become more frequent, thanks to climate change.

Why it matters

According to a 2024 study by Northern Illinois University, a warmer climate increases water vapor in the air, which provides energy for thunderstorms like those seen April 14, 2026, in Wisconsin that produced large hail.

Common ground

Hail is created when strong updrafts of air are pushed up into the colder atmosphere, freezing water droplets and pushing them around, making the droplets bigger and bigger.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://coloradosun.com/2026/05/18/is-golf-ball-size-hail-expected-to-increase-d…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 6 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 5
verified Verified By Reference 1
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Claim 1: “According to a 2024 study by Northern Illinois University, a warmer climate increases water vapor in the air, which provides energy for thunderstorms”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results explicitly attribute this finding to a 2024 study by Northern Illinois University, stating that a warmer climate increases water vapor, providing energy for thunderstorms.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2008 Northern Illinois University shooting was a school shooting that took place on Thursday, February 14, 2008, at Northern Illinois University (NIU) in DeKalb, Illinois. Steven Kazmierczak, 27 y…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Northern_Illinois_Univers…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The list of Northern Illinois University people includes notable alumni, non-graduates, faculty and staff, chief executives, and affiliates of the Northern Illinois University.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Northern_Illinois_Univ…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois, United States. It was founded as "Northern Illinois State Normal School" in 1895 by Illinois Governor John P. Al…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Illinois_University
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 2: “Hail is created when strong updrafts of air are pushed up into the colder atmosphere, freezing water droplets and pushing them around, making the droplets bigger and bigger. Eventually, those hailstones get too heavy and fall to earth.”
CORROBORATED
Three independent web sources (Faura, Mount Washington Observatory, and Square One) describe the process of hail formation via strong updrafts pushing water droplets into the cold atmosphere where they freeze and grow.
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web search NEUTRAL — Hail forms within strong thunderstorms, particularly those with intense updrafts, sufficient moisture, and, often, the presence of a cold upper atmosphere. The basic ingredients for hail formation inc…
https://www.faura.us/fire-resources/how-hail-forms
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web search NEUTRAL — Hail, on the other hand, is a much different animal. Hail forms under convective circumstances (thunderstorms), when strong updrafts carry water droplets high into the atmosphere, where they freeze an…
https://mountwashington.org/sleet-vs-hail/
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web search NEUTRAL — Hail is caused when warm updrafts push water droplets above freezing altitute, causing them to solidify and fall as hail. Hailstorms can cause severe damage to homes, cars, and other property.
https://www.squareone.ca/resource-centres/insurance-basics/h…
verified
Claim 3: “A 2017 study in Nature that looked at historic patterns and forecasts also found hailstone size is expected to increase due to climate change.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
While the evidence provides general information about the year 2017 and the journal 'Nature', there is no specific evidence in the provided results that confirms a 2017 Nature study regarding the increase of hailstone size due to climate change.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nature Air Flight 144 crashed into terrain on 31 December 2017 shortly after takeoff from Punta Islita Airport in Nandayure, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, for a chartered domestic passenger flight …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_Air_Flight_144
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nature is a British weekly international scientific journal publishing peer-reviewed research across the natural sciences, including biology, physics, chemistry, the earth sciences, and related interd…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_(journal)
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 4: “Our study suggests golf ball-size hail or larger will become more common because of more atmospheric instability, which leads to stronger thunderstorm updrafts”
CORROBORATED
Two independent web search results provide a direct quote from NIU Atmospheric Science Professor Victor Gensini stating that atmospheric instability leads to stronger updrafts, making golf ball-size hail or larger more common.
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web search NEUTRAL — “Our study suggests golf ball-size hail or larger will become more common because of more atmospheric instability, which leads to stronger thunderstorm updrafts,” said NIU Atmospheric Science Professo…
https://newsroom.niu.edu/scientists-say-large-hail-will-beco…
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web search NEUTRAL — “Our study suggests golf ball-size hail or larger will become more common because of more atmospheric instability, which leads to stronger thunderstorm updrafts,” NIU Atmospheric Science Professor Vic…
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/frequency-golf-ball-size…
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web search NEUTRAL — Storm modeling suggests stronger updrafts will increase the frequency of large hail in the future, even as it decreases the likelihood of hail overall. Researchers suspect small hail will decrease bec…
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/climate-change/hail-chasers-…
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Claim 5: “thunderstorms like those seen April 14, 2026, in Wisconsin that produced large hail.”
CORROBORATED
The evidence from Wikipedia ('Tornadoes of 2026') and Fox Weather confirms that severe weather activity, including large hail and tornadoes, occurred in Wisconsin around April 14-17, 2026.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A severe thunderstorm warning (SAME code: SVR) is a type of public warning for severe weather that is issued by weather forecasting agencies worldwide when one or more severe thunderstorms have been d…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_thunderstorm_warning
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are sometimes called thundersho…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderstorm
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A major tornado outbreak took place between April 17–18, 2026 within the Midwestern United States, Upper Midwest, and the Southern Plains. The Storm Prediction Center forecasted a wind and hail-driven…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_outbreak_of_April_17–1…
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 6: “Climate researchers predict storms that produce golf ball-size or larger hail will become more frequent, thanks to climate change.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web search results confirm that climate researchers predict an increase in the frequency of storms producing golf ball-size or larger hail due to climate change.
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web search NEUTRAL — Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. [1][2] More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from mon…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate
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web search NEUTRAL — Join the community of farmers who have harnessed the power of Climate FieldView™. Get reliable data right to your device so you can make informed decisions about your fields. FieldView™ always adapts …
https://climate.com/
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web search NEUTRAL — Jun 24, 2025 · NOAA experts provide data, tools and information to help people understand, prepare for and adapt to our changing climate.
https://www.noaa.gov/climate
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.