A grapefruit-size hailstone that pummelled Oahu during a hailstorm this month has now been confirmed as the largest on record for the state of Hawaii, announced officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A final measurement of the hailstone, which dropped from the skies on March 9, places it at 10.8 by 5.7 by 5 centimetres. Read more
If you cut open a hailstone, you'll find concentric rings, like a sawed tree, indicating how the hail repeatedly rose and fell in the clouds. It takes a powerful storm for hail to build into softballs. Sometimes the weather service dispatches a team to verify the finds. Nebraska's famed Aurora hailstone for several years held the title as the nation's largest, measuring 7 inches wide and 18.75 inches around. But last July it was bested by a hailstone from Vivian, S.D. That ice chunk, weighing 1 pound, 15 ounces, was an inch wider but smaller in circumference. Read more
Leslie "Les" Scott found the record-breaker, which is almost the size of a soccer ball, last week. It's been officially declared the largest ever recorded in the United States, in terms of both diameter and weight. The hailstone measured 8.0 inches in diameter, had a circumference of 18.62 inches, and weighed one pound, 15 ounces, according to the NOAA National Climate Extremes Committee. Read more
A giant chunk of hail that plunged into the prairie town of Vivian, South Dakota, last Friday was confirmed today as the heaviest hailstone ever recorded in the United States. Read more