A in the south-east of Spain in the year 2000, giant lumps of ice the size of basketballs fell from the sky, smashing roofs and cars as they dropped. This is not the only weird weather to appear in the news; in England in the 1940s it rained frogs. At first glance it might seem that these phenomena are practical jokes or simply untrue, but a look at the science behind them reveals some interesting results. B Initially meteorologists thought these huge ice balls might have fallen from passing planes, but closer analysis revealed they had the "onionskin layering of ice typical of 1hailstones. Hailstones are caused by winds known as updrafts that blow upward in thunderstorms. Droplets of 'supercooled water are carried upwards where they come into contact with ice crystals or dust particles and instantly freeze, causing a hailstone to grow around these particles Hailstones cycle between the updraft and the top of the cloud over and again, growing with each revolution as they come into contact with moisture. At some point they become too heavy and fall to the ground C If the giant ice balls found in Spain, called megacryometeors, are really just enormous hailstones, the updrafts would have to be very strong and a result of a violent storm. However, these megacryometeors fell from cloudless skies. The cause of the giant hails is unclear but scientists from the University of