Very Large Hail in a Warming Climate: Climatology, Trends and Losses

We statistically constructed a long-term (1950–2023) global climatology of very large hail (VLH; \(\:\ge\:\) 5 cm) and investigated the associated trends in the context of a warming climate. Northern Argentina has the highest VLH occurrence, followed by Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil. The USA Great Plains and South Africa also exhibit high VLH frequency while Europe, Australia, and especially Asia experience lower activity. VLH occurrence increased the most across Europe, being strongly correlated with rising temperatures and primarily driven by an increase in low-level moisture and instability. Significant decreases in VLH frequency are limited to the Southern Hemisphere and occurred most strongly across South America as a result of decreasing mid-level humidity and instability. Hail-related losses have risen in the USA, Australia and Europe. The more frequent occurrence of VLH contributes to this increase in Europe, while in the USA and Australia, socio-economic factors are mainly responsible for the rise.