The damage caused to crops by large hailstones has prompted many attempts to prevent hail forming. Techniques similar to those used in cloud seeding have been tried, aiming to turn hailstones into rain, but this does not seem to work. In the early 20th century, people tried using “anti-hail guns”. These would fire huge amounts of debris into the clouds in an attempt to break up the hailstones. They were tried many times, unsuccessfully, in the vineyards of France.
A Hail cannon is a shock wave generator claimed to disrupt the formation of hailstones in the atmosphere.
These devices frequently engender conflict between farmers and neighbors when used, because they are repeatedly fired every 1 to 10 seconds while a storm is approaching and until it has passed through the area, yet there is no scientific evidence for their effectiveness.
In the French wine-growing regions, church-bells were traditionally rung in the face of oncoming storms and later replaced by firing rockets or cannons.
A mixture of acetylene and oxygen is ignited in the lower chamber of the machine. As the resulting blast passes through the neck and into the cone, it develops into a shock wave. This shock wave then travels at the speed of sound through the cloud formations above, a disturbance which manufacturers claim disrupts the growth phase of hailstones.
Manufacturers claim that what would otherwise have fallen as hailstones then falls as slush or rain. It is said to be critical that the machine is running during the approach of the storm in order to affect the developing hailstones, although all manufacturers unanimously agree that the area of effect of their device is only 100 to 200 square meters directly above.
Picture Credit : Google