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Hail the size of grapefruit shattered car windows in Johnson City, Texas. In June, 2024, a storm chaser found a hailstone almost as big as a pineapple. Even larger hailstones have been documented in South Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska. Hail has damaged airplanes and even crashed through the roofs of houses.

How do hailstones get so large, and are hailstorms getting worse?

As an atmospheric scientist, I study and teach about extreme weather and its risks. Here’s how hail forms, how hailstorms may be changing, and some tips for staying safe.

How does hail get so big?

Hail begins as tiny crystals of ice that are swept into a thunderstorm’s updraft. As these ice embryos collide with supercooled water – liquid water that has a temperature below freezing – the water freezes around each embryo, causing the embryo to grow.

Supercooled water freezes at different rates, depending on the temperature of the hailstone surface, leaving layers of clear or cloudy ice as the hailstone moves around inside a thunderstorm. If you cut open a large hailstone, you can see those layers, similar to tree rings.

The path a hailstone takes through a thunderstorm cloud, and the time it spends collecting supercooled water, dictates how large it can grow.

Rotating, long-lived, severe thunderstorms called supercells tend to produce the largest hail. In supercells, hailstones can be suspended for 10-15 minutes or more in strong thunderstorm updrafts, where there is ample supercooled water, before falling out of the storm due to their weight or moving out of the updraft.

Hail is most common during spring and summer when a few key ingredients are present: warm, humid air near the surface; an unstable air mass in the middle troposphere; winds strongly changing with height; and thunderstorms triggered by a weather system.

Larger hail, more damage

Hailstorms can be destructive, particularly for farms, where barrages of even small hail can beat down crops and damage fruit.

As hailstones get larger, their energy and force when they strike objects increases dramatically. Baseball-sized hail falling from the sky has as much kinetic energy as a typical major league fastball. As a result, property damage, such as to roofs, siding, windows, and cars, increases as hail gets larger than the size of a quarter.

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A federal court in New York handed President Donald Trump a big setback Wednesday, blocking his audacious plan to impose massive taxes on imports from almost every country in the world.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that Trump overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and justify the sweeping tariffs.

The tariffs overturned decades of U.S. trade policy, disrupted global commerce, rattled financial markets, and raised the risk of higher prices and recession in the United States and around the world.

The U.S. Court of International Trade has jurisdiction over civil cases involving trade. Its decisions can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington and ultimately to the Supreme Court, where the legal challenges to Trump’ tariffs are widely expected to end up.

Which tariffs did the court block?

The court’s decision blocks the tariffs Trump slapped last month on almost all U.S. trading partners and levies he imposed before that on China, Mexico, and Canada.

On April 2, Trump imposed so-called reciprocal tariffs of up to 50% on countries with which the United States runs a trade deficit and 10% baseline tariffs on almost everybody else. He later suspended the reciprocal tariffs for 90 days to give countries time to agree to reduce barriers to U.S. exports. But he kept the baseline tariffs in place. Claiming extraordinary power to act without congressional approval, he justified the taxes under IEEPA by declaring the United States’ longstanding trade deficits “a national emergency.”

In February, he’d invoked the law to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, saying that the illegal flow of immigrants and drugs across the U.S. border amounted to a national emergency and that the three countries needed to do more to stop it.

The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to set taxes, including tariffs. But lawmakers have gradually let presidents assume more power over tariffs, and Trump has made the most of it.

The tariffs are being challenged in at least seven lawsuits. In the ruling Wednesday, the trade court combined two of the cases — one brought by five small businesses and another by 12 U.S. states.

The ruling does leave in place other Trump tariffs, including those on foreign steel, aluminum, and autos. But those levies were invoked under a different law that required a Commerce Department investigation and could not be imposed at the president’s own discretion.

Why did the court rule against the president?

The administration had argued that courts had approved then-President Richard Nixon’s emergency use of tariffs in a 1971 economic and financial crisis that arose when the United States suddenly devalued the dollar by ending a policy that linked the U.S. currency to the price of gold. The Nixon administration successfully cited its authority under the 1917 Trading With Enemy Act, which preceded and supplied some of the legal language later used in IEPPA.

The court disagreed, deciding that Trump’s sweeping tariffs exceeded his authority to regulate imports under IEEPA. It also said the tariffs did nothing to deal with problems they were supposed to address. In their case, the states noted that America’s trade deficits hardly amount of a sudden emergency. The United States has racked them up for 49 straight years in good times and bad.

So where does this leave Trump’s trade agenda?

Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade official who is now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, says the court’s decision “throws the president’s trade policy into turmoil.”

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President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing-in ceremony for interim U.S. Attorney General for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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CLIMATEWIRE | Public officials have started pleading with the Trump administration for help in recovering from deadly disasters as President Donald Trump triggers frustration in states struck by tornadoes, floods, and storms by taking no action on requests for aid.

Trump has left states, counties and tribes in limbo as he delays making decisions on formal requests for millions of dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding. Some areas that are still reeling from extreme weather are unable to start cleanup.

“We’re at a standstill and waiting on a declaration from FEMA,” said Royce McKee, emergency management director in Walthall County, Mississippi, which was hit by tornadoes in mid-March.

The county of 13,000 people can’t afford to clean up acres of debris, McKee said, and is waiting for Trump to act on a disaster request that was submitted by Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, on April 1 after the tornadoes killed seven people, destroyed or damaged 671 homes, and caused $18.2 million in public damage.

“I’m disappointed, especially for the people that lost their houses,” McKee said.

Trump himself assailed FEMA in January for being “very slow.”

The frustration over Trump’s handling of disasters is the latest upheaval

involving FEMA. Trump recently canceled two FEMA grant programs that gave states billions of dollars a year to pay for protective measures against disasters. The move drew protests from Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

On May 8, Trump fired FEMA leader Cameron Hamilton and replaced him with David Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer who has no experience in emergency management.

At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, pleaded with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to push Trump to approve three disaster requests that Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, had sent to Trump beginning April 2.

“We are desperate for assistance in Missouri,” Hawley said as Noem pledged to help. Her department oversees FEMA.

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, whose city was badly damaged by tornadoes earlier this week, told MSNBC: “What we need right now is federal assistance. This is where FEMA and the federal government have got to come in and help communities. Our city can’t shoulder this alone.”

Trump has not acted on 17 disaster requests, a high number for this time of year, according to a FEMA daily report released Wednesday. On the same date eight years ago, during Trump’s first presidency, only three disaster requests were awaiting presidential action, the FEMA report from May 21, 2017, shows.

Eleven of the 17 pending disaster requests were sent to Trump more than a month ago.

“This looks to me like, until FEMA’s role is clarified, then we’re just going to sit on it,” said a former senior FEMA official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Trump has indicated that he wants to shrink the agency, which distributes about $45 billion in disaster aid a year, helps with as many as 100 disasters at a time and, he said, “has been a very big disappointment.”

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As a parent, it may feel like managing your child’s sleep habits is an uphill battle—the busy swirl of school, extra-curricular activities, and the family circus can make getting to bed a chore. But sleep is not just important for physical health—it is essential for mental health, too. Getting to bed on time can be a challenge for busy families, but it’s possible to build a good rest routine to support children’s emotional and cognitive resilience.

Clinical psychologist Brian Razzino, Ph.D., stresses the importance of sleep as the “foundation” of mental health. “Think of sleep as the foundation of a house—if it’s shaky, everything built on it becomes unstable,” he says. “Chronic sleep deprivation undermines our emotional ‘blueprints,’ making us more prone to mood swings, heightened stress responses, and persistent anxiety.”

Dr. Razzino describes an emotional blueprint as the underlying structure or framework that shapes how a person experiences, processes, and expresses emotions.

The Link Between Sleep and Mental Health

When sleep is inadequate over long periods, it can significantly impact mood regulation, emotional stability, and mental health. Research highlights a direct link between chronic sleep deprivation and mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. In a 2020 review in the National Library of Medicine, researchers found that individuals suffering from chronic insomnia were more likely to develop mood disorders. This reinforces the understanding that poor sleep is not just a symptom, but a contributing factor to mental health challenges.

Dr. Razzino says that “over time, insufficient sleep is strongly linked to a higher risk of clinical depression and more severe anxiety disorders,” and the effects are not limited to adults. Children and adolescents with disrupted sleep patterns are also at greater risk for mental health struggles. A 2024 study by renowned sleep researcher Evelyn Touchette and colleagues revealed that kids experiencing sleep difficulties, such as trouble falling asleep, were at an elevated risk for depression, ADHD, and conduct problems by age 15.

Dr. Razzino compares a child’s brain to a cluttered office by day’s end, with sleep serving as the cleaning crew that clears out waste and reorganizes for a fresh start the next day.

“Sleep acts as the brain’s overnight maintenance crew,” Dr. Razzino explains. “During sleep, our minds consolidate memories, process stressors, and strengthen the neural connections critical for learning. But when sleep is interrupted, these repair cycles are shortened, leading to deficits in emotional regulation and cognitive performance.”

While the link between sleep and emotional well-being is undeniable, emotional regulation and emotional resilience often become key areas of concern in children and adolescents facing sleep disturbances. From a clinical standpoint, understanding how sleep deprivation affects emotional responses is crucial, and learning how to implement age-appropriate support strategies can help mitigate these effects.

Emotional Resilience

Stephanie Drew, LCSW, a therapist specializing in child and adolescent mental health, also emphasizes the benefits of adequate sleep for emotional resilience. “Well-rested children are better equipped to regulate their emotions and cope with stress effectively,” she says. “Sleep helps develop emotional regulation skills, which are essential for coping with life’s challenges.”

For children, sleep disruptions—such as long sleep latency (difficulty falling asleep)—can be particularly detrimental. “Even one aspect of sleep disruption can gradually undermine the brain’s nightly ‘maintenance,’ leading to challenges in managing everyday stress, learning effectively, and developing stable emotional patterns,” Dr. Razzino adds.

Sleep-Deprived Parents Suffer, Too

Sleep deprivation doesn’t only affect children; it also has serious repercussions for adult mental health. Rebekka Wall, a certified adolescent and adult sleep consultant, explains, “Chronic lack of sleep affects our mental health because it increases stress, impairs our emotional regulation, and reduces our overall resilience to mental, emotional, and physical challenges.” Though parents may be able to push through sleep deprivation, adults, like children, need quality sleep to maintain their mental well-being, and going without rest can lead to a similar cascade of negative effects.

“When we lack sleep, we experience irritability, brain fog, and the parts of the brain that help us manage emotions don’t function as they should,” says Wall. “This results in an inability to cope effectively with stress, increased anxiety, and even symptoms of depression.” While addressing sleep and emotional regulation in children is crucial, it’s important to recognize the immense challenge parents face in ensuring everyone gets adequate rest, particularly when caring for younger children.

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