Come summer every year, a large swath of the country braces for hail. Known as Hail Alley, the region stretching from Wyoming to Texas receives more hailstorms, and more severe ones, compared to other parts of the country.
Features on land and in the atmosphere make perfect hail conditions for this part of the U.S. But living in the hail sweet spot can get inconvenient.
“My car got really dinged up the second year that I was here,” says Sam Childs, a researcher at Colorado State University. After that, "I decided I’d like to take a look at hail,” he says.
