Hailstorm test on "this old house"

This week, the TV show “This Old House” has an episode in which
a house is besieged with hailstones. It actually happens in an insurance
test facility. They explain the whole test process including the creation
of hailstorms and the gun they use to blast the house.

There are three kinds of roofing on the house, three tab, laminate and
metal. The roofing held up pretty good but the gutter took a beating.

I haven’t posted enough to include the link but if you do a search for
“this old house” you’ll find it. It is this weeks episode (ep.19)

Nice complex, and video - And the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IIBHS) is to be commended for their efforts to protect others general welfare. They can even recreate wind events to see if structures gave way before water damaged them. Maybe they can recreate Hurricane Ike type wind events.

The following IIBHS pdf makes clear that man-made (smooth surface) “hailstones” impact and damage on controlled surfaces can be very different from random and naturally made (irregular and spiked surface) hailstones, and random/naturally varied winds, impact.

disastersafety.org/wp-conten … y_IBHS.pdf

As a side point - On numerous occasions over the last 22 years in post-catastrophe markets - I personally noticed (curiously) patches of dead grass exactly where many hailstones came to rest, and melted. I thought that maybe the impact or the stones temperature had killed the grass.

To help avoid “junk science” premises - that can invisibly/negatively/financially affect - people

What about the following considerations;

  1. (Acidic) atmospheric moisture condensed = Acid rain and/or Acidic hailstones.

  2. IIBHS’s Naturally Smooth/Slippery ph controlled (Man-made) ice balls effect on material - vs - Naturally Rough/Abrasive and acidic (Nature-made) hailstones comparative contrasting material effect on natural and/or man-made materials.

Real initial and long term corrosive effect on many man-made and natural materials.

From initial hailstone impact and acidic distribution - to eventual ph balance - what material sustains initial acid exposure damage, and what is potential long and short term effect of such exposure, on natural and/or man-made material?

Grass root systems die, or are damaged. What else is affected by these little-to-large shrapnel grenades that contain acid?

Due to the fact and prevalence of (too much) acids in the atmosphere - Can a standardized test be developed by the IIBHS to measure acid mass embodied in natural hail stones?

…And all that that may mean towards acid sensitive cementitious, metallic, and etc. roofing, siding, glass, and etc. construction materials.