Record-Breaking Hail

A hail stone weighing nearly two pounds that dropped out of a thunderstorm in South Dakota last week has officially become a record-breaking hailstone!

NOAA's National Climate Extremes Committee, responsible for validating national weather records, declared today that a hailstone found last week in Vivian, S.D., to be the largest in diameter and heaviest ever recovered in the United States.

Found after a July 23, 2010 severe thunderstorm by Vivian resident Les Scott, the hailstone is 8.0 inches in diameter and weighs 1.9375 pounds (1 pound, 15 ounces) with a circumference of 18.62 inches.

These measurements displace the previous hailstone record for weight, previously 1.67 pounds for a stone in Coffeyville, Kan., in 1970.

They also surpass the record for diameter, which was 7 inches for a hailstone found in Aurora, Neb., in 2003. The Aurora hailstone still holds the record for circumference of 18.75 inches.

Check out the link to the National Weather Service office in Aberdeen, S.D. for pictures of this huge hailstone!

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=abr&storyid=55671&source=0