Hail Size Discrimination Experiment (HaSDEx)

Project Status: Active

09/10/2008 through 09/14/2008 PM -- Heavy rain will continue through the weekend. Hail is very unlikely, but reports of rain, especially *very* heavy rain, are useful, so please send those in. Of course, if you see any hail, we'd like to know about it! !!!=====!!! Please note that because of computer security requirements, reports you make to the NWS are not shared with HaSDEx and reports to HaSDEx are not shared with the NWS, so please keep both in mind as you submit reports and observations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How will I know the project's status?

A: In general, we run the radar and collect data during any kind of event (the radar is used for much more than to simply help us determine whether rain is falling), but this particular project is active only during severe weather events that will produce hail. We have four levels of activity:

Inactive — Nothing is going on and we're not anticipating anything in the foreseeable future.
Stay Tuned — No operations are currently planned, but we're watching the weather to see if anything interesting begins to take shape.
Activities Planned — We're confident that an interesting event will occur and have planned activity to commence by a given time.
Active — An event is underway.

In addition to this, we maintain a brief message about project status on the project web page, so that you may see what our current thinking is about the weather.

Q: I'm outside of your 90 mile radius. Can I still participate?

A: Yes! Observations outside of the 90 mile radius are still useful, so feel free to participate.

Q: Why do I have to re-enter my coordinates each time? Can't you simply remember me?

A: We have intentionally kept the database anonymous, so we don't know who has entered the data. We don't use cookies or other identifying technology, so we have no way of knowing who is making an entry at any given time. However, your web browser likely keeps track of this information and will auto-complete the field for you. To be sure though, you might want to save your coordinates in a small text file saved on your desktop and use "copy" and "paste" if auto-completion doesn't work for you.

Q: I'll be at someone else's house during some of the storm, but I'd still like to enter observations. Is it OK to enter observations from someplace other than my home location?

A: Yes! Any observations we get are useful to us, even those outside of the 90 mile radius.