Stock Photo - 13 July 2021, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Wildberg: Pilot Frank Kasparek stands next to a hail defence aircraft. If a storm forms in Württemberg, he climbs up with his aircraft to prevent anything worse. Whether hail pilots like him can really do that, however, is disputed. In model tests, their method works like this: In the updrafts of hail-prone clouds, silver iodide, a yellowish salt, is burned in a compound with acetone, so that more and thus smaller hailstones form around the particles - or the precipitation comes down in the form of larger raindrops. (to dpa KORR.: ""Clouds against hail ""vaccinate""? During storms, the principle of hope applies"") Photo: Marijan Murat/dpa. - Wildberg/Baden-Wuerttemberg/Germany