<blockquote>AK, you don’t need peer-reviewed science for this. It has made its way into cloud-spotter guides and school books. Be specific what you are saying. Are you saying anvil clouds are not made of frozen particles?</blockquote>Actually, I don't need anything. I've understood the basics since I was in high-school, and kept up. I was hoping you'd realize how abysmally ignorant you are, for instance in saying:<blockquote>The top half of every thunderstorm is ice, and all the cirrus clouds and lots of polar clouds.</blockquote>Perhaps, to give you the benefit of the doubt, your idea of <i>"top half"</i> is the cirrus shield that <b>often</b> forms through detrainment.
I've looked around a little, and haven't found anything specific about the time-frame involved in conversion from supercooled liquid droplets to ice crystals during detrainment, but certainly your original simplistic idea that the water droplets that make up cumulonimbus clouds freeze and turn to hail demonstrates your ignorance.
If you want to correct your ignorance, a little, you might might do worse than to start <a href="http://web.atmos.ucla.edu/~bstevens/Documents/annurev.earth.33.092203.pdf" rel="nofollow">here</a>. I haven't had a chance to fully review it, but it comes well recommended from other peer-reviewed sources, and provides the basics.
