Comparison of observed and modelled hailstone spectra during a severe storm over the Northern Pyrenean foothills

Periodically, the south of France is touched by hail falls causing much damage to the agricultural community. The present work discusses a numerical simulation of a precipitating convective system in the region of southern France using a three-dimensional, non-hydrostatic cloud physics model coupled to a spectral hail microphysics module. A simulation of the 29 April 1999 hailstorm over the Pyrenees mountains on the border to Spain was performed. This study tests the ability of a current state-of-the-art hail model to reproduce such severe hailstorms. Generally, the storm dimensions and structure, documented by the radar, and the surface hail distributions documented by the hail pads were reasonably well reproduced.