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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

🚨CALLING ALL CHASERS🚨 If you’re out chasing, you’re in a unique position to capture some of the most valuable hail observations available. We invite you to contribute your hail reports to the ICECHIP database and help improve our understanding of severe hail events. icechip.niu.edu/submit_repor...

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Sabrina Servey with the CMU team shares some initial hail swath distributions from three ICECHIP IOPs. #AMS2026

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

The CU Boulder UAS team highlighted RAAVEN imagery from two operational days, with the most impressive hail swath occurring near Winnett, Montana on June 15, 2025. #AMS2026

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

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?...

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

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!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

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!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

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!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

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!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

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!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

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!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

#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!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

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)

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

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...

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

#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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

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!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

#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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

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

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

#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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

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.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Una serie de días con clima severo continúan hoy en las llanuras del sur, con posibilidad de granizo muy grande en el oeste de Texas. Este será el tercer día consecutivo de operaciones para #ICECHIP. Nuevamente, si encuentra algún granizo grande, consulte lo siguiente. bsky.app/profile/nsfi...

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

An active stretch of weather continues in the southern Plains today with very large hail possible in west Texas. This will be the third consecutive day of operations for #ICECHIP. Again, if you find any very large hailstones, please refer to the following:

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Full soundings of the troposphere are important for capturing temperature, humidity, and wind data up to 18 km or higher. These balloons are launched both before and during convection.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

We’re crossing another state off our list today! #ICECHIP operations enter eastern New Mexico today with a few storms expected to move off the higher terrain towards sunset. Please bag and tag large hailstones for our teams!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Meso A is one of two mobile mesonets that deploy 100 lb pods at specific distance intervals in front of a storm to measure certain variables. Here are some photos from Meso A yesterday!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Today’s operations drift eastward into the Red River area as a cold front is expected to spark severe thunderstorms this afternoon and evening with scattered large hail.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

The eighth IOP of #ICECHIP is today in the northern panhandle of Texas where scattered storms are expected to produce instances of severe hail. We expect to remain in the southern Plains for tomorrow.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

While collecting hailstones is important, creating a well-rounded dataset really means gathering different types of data at the same time that can be matched. One of the ways we can understand these hail storms is to sample the near-storm environment. 📸 Katie Wargowsky

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Check out the hail fog that we came across yesterday afternoon near Brownfield, Texas! ¡Miren la niebla de granizo que encontramos ayer por la tarde cerca de Brownfield, Texas! 📸 Ethan Mok

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Some of the #ICECHIP teams deploying instruments during yesterday’s mission! Algunos de los equipos de #ICECHIP situando instrumentos durante la misión de ayer.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

On Thursday, the #ICECHIP teams performed an impressive hail sampling effort on a storm to the south of Lubbock, Texas. Hail reports from our teams can always be found here on our website: icechip.niu.edu/reports/

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Chasers! NSF ICECHIP is looking for your help to obtain hail measurements. While we are out in the field, if you happen to have collected a large or interesting hailstone, feel free to bag it and place in cooler with the date, time and location to share with one of our teams…

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

#ICECHIP will resume data collection today in west Texas with a chance of significant hail for IOP 7. As a reminder, you can bag and label very large hailstones!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Operations continue today into southwestern Texas with isolated large hail potential. This will be IOP 6. As a reminder, you can bag and preserve very large hail for our teams.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Most ground teams deployed on a storm that produced wind-driven baseball-sized hail near Christoval, Texas yesterday afternoon. Another team found 5.87 inch hail further to the east by Menard.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

Yesterday, #ICECHIP teams collected numerous hailstones > 100 mm in diameter, with the largest one being at least 139 mm (5.47 inches) just east of Afton, Texas. These stones will be sent to the cold lab at NCAR.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

#ICECHIP operations are back today in the Texas panhandle! If you are in the area, you can always bag and tag very large hailstones with lat, lon, and time. #TXwx

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Teams had the most successful IOP yet today in Colorado, featuring > 70-80 mm hailstones (large apple sized) and an unexpected tornado near Akron! Well done everyone!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

#ICECHIP teams will be gathering data today in the upslope flow regime of northeast Colorado in hopes of collecting several hundreds of hailstones for isotope analysis and crushing.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Some of the many students on #ICECHIP visited WFO Dodge City today. Beginning tomorrow, we expect a few days of simultaneous operations in the central and southern Great Plains!

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

The deployment of a variety of instruments is important for generating the vast dataset that will come out of #ICECHIP. These are just some of the many photos from Sunday and Monday in Oklahoma and Kansas.

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ICECHIP @nsficechip.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

IOP 2 ended at 8:15 pm CDT yesterday. #ICECHIP will be down for the next few days in anticipation of some return of moisture to the domain. 📸 Josh Aikins

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