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7/23/10 DISC: SD/IL

The pictures out of there had my jaw hit the floor. Seeing that bomb of a hailstone and subsequent crater was unlike anything I have ever seen. Aurora may be stepping aside for this one! I compared it to two softball sized hailstones that were frozen/fused together and never broke apart. 4.25 x2. Just by the naked eye on the measurements it looked to near hit 8 in. (with the main stone being about 6; I am not sure if the spikes are measured or just the actual solid core.) Feel bad for the poor souls that were caught out in that hail stone and just as important if any cattle were bombarded.
 
Danny Neal said:
The pictures out of there had my jaw hit the floor. Seeing that bomb of a hailstone and subsequent crater was unlike anything I have ever seen. Aurora may be stepping aside for this one! I compared it to two softball sized hailstones that were frozen/fused together and never broke apart. 4.25 x2. Just by the naked eye on the measurements it looked to near hit 8 in. (with the main stone being about 6; I am not sure if the spikes are measured or just the actual solid core.) Feel bad for the poor souls that were caught out in that hail stone and just as important if any cattle were bombarded.
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Danny... I haven't seen the pictures of the crater... can you link? Thanks.
 
mcrowther said:
The pics here seem to indicate that the hail in Vivian rivals the largest hail ever recorded- the Aurora, NE hail of 2003 was 7 inches in diameter and 18.75 in circumference- what do you all think?

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

Whoops, meant 7/23, mods please fix....
Click to expand...

Do they count the spikes or not? Looks like the winner with the spike for sure, otherwise it looks too close to call on a diameter. I'd rather get hit in the head by the aurora stone I think anyway, looks like it has a good bit more drag that helped keep it up, while the SD one looks overall very round in comparison.

I was on I90 shooting video of it as it entered Vivian. Interestingly enough this is exactly the same time the storm had a vicious lowering deal that was plowing up Earth and starting to spin and get a cut more south of it. Looked like a serious tornado was about to plant. That area looked to be scooting barely to the north of town, like south edge of it maybe hitting town. You could soon see the big cut and base extending back some behind it. Blasting wet/icy rfd won out with that circulation though and undercut it. The massive hail would have came out the west/sw edge of that meso I'd guess as it all slid se.

The whole time right there the core to the east of the base was very vivid blue-green. And at this same time and for a bit after, a crazy long wall of convection made up a stout beavertail going due east. I remember looking at VIL and tops on radar then and thinking, given we were as far west as we were....this VIL max likely had merit to it for big hail unlike ever seems to be the case further east. That area sucks for radar though as it gets off of Rapid City's and Sioux Falls and is barely in Aberdeen's.

http://www.keloland.com/images/upload/image/haillarge.jpg

That top stone scares me. Man it'd be so much fun easter egg hunting one of these events after they are over. Sigh. As storms were initiating we were right there at the gas station at the Pierre exit a mile west of Vivian too.

Will eventually post a couple pics of that time frame but was too close to get the structure except for on 360 degree video pans often driving east with it munching down I90 right behind. It was amazing just how void east bound traffic became at Chamberlain east. Not a single soul just ahead of that storm for a long ways. Also very interesting this chase were the number of folks parking under overpasses well ahead of any precip. Evidently they were hearing it over the radio and just wise enough to stop and wait. That'd be an interesting vacation drive to the black hills with your parents as a kid(those not taking shelter but driving right in). Especially given you'd likely be in the back seat of whatever with the window breaking out completely.

Without the spike it is clearly breaking 7 inches. It is crazy to take out a ruler and measure that out and picture something round there.
 
Hopefully the person who took those pictures froze that bad boy. I think a better way to determine a record stone would be the weight.

Chicago was also slammed by severe weather on this day too so while I am here I might as well post some video from it...since this is a DISC thread on this day and I don't feel like starting a new one just for this.



The area I live in received a whopping 7.51" of rain in just 24rs from training storms afterward, flooding like I have never seen before in this area plus a good 5 inches of water in my crawl space which I [along with my father] have been pumping out with a measly 12 gallon shop vac.
 
Dann Cianca said:
Danny... I haven't seen the pictures of the crater... can you link? Thanks.
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Hey Dann, I was trying to find the pictures for you on KELOland but now only find a couple. I will keep searching. There was a picture with bombs littering the ground and large divots next to it..... Maybe someone saved it on facebook. I will find them though.

EDIT: It is also possible they just yanked it from another event too. Never really thought about that until someone just mentioned it to me via AIM lol.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Radar grab from UDX about 10 to 15 minutes before the largest hail at Vivian. Nice BWER. That town is a long way from any radar, about 110 nm from UDX which is the closest RDA.

UDX_07232010_2254UTC.jpg
 
Were the storms in SD west of Chamberlain really moving at 50-60 mph? When I was heading west to meet up with them the warnings said around 25mph +/- 5mph. I stopped at the Kennebec exit to watch it because I knew I wouldn't make it to Presho before the hail started to fall. Started heading east again on I90 when the tornado warning came out and said the storm was moving IIRC 60 mph. I don't know if that was actually accurate or not, but I couldn't believe it. Never had time to check to see if it was indeed moving that fast so I am curious if anyone knows the answer. What was weird is south of Kimball that second storm to the south of the main one also became tor warned but the warning said it was nearly stationary while the one to the north was said to be moving at like 40 mph. Anyone know how fast they were actually moving and if they were moving at 60 mph why that happened?
 
Pictures of the possible world record hailstone from Vivian, SD

The possible world record hailstone fell at Vivian, SD at approximately 6 pm on Friday, July 23, 2010 (see link below).
Vivian is located 32 miles south of Pierre, SD along I-90.

July 23rd Storm Reports and Pictures of Large Hail by NWS WFO Aberdeen, SD

Large%20Hail%202.jpg

Vivian, SD 8-inch diameter hailstone from July 23, 2010 storm (picture shot on July 24)
Observer reported that when he first went outside to pick them up, the largest had a diameter of 11 inches.

Large%20Hail.jpg

Vivian, SD 18.5-inch circumference hailstone from July 23, 2010 storm (picture shot on July 24)

Compare the Vivian hailstone to the current (soon to be previous?) world record holder from Aurora, NE:

bigger_stone.png

Aurora, NE (previous?) record 7-inch hailstone from June 22, 2003 storm
 
I felt so bad for all the tourists and families I saw driving west on I90 right in to that thing. Really wish I could've told them to stop.

Anyone know what caused those storms to speed up so quickly? Definitely wasn't expecting those kinds of speed on Friday.
 
Dean Baron said:
I felt so bad for all the tourists and families I saw driving west on I90 right in to that thing. Really wish I could've told them to stop.

Anyone know what caused those storms to speed up so quickly? Definitely wasn't expecting those kinds of speed on Friday.
Click to expand...

Pretty solid mid-level jet speeds into SD on this one. Also with that dl arcing so far and sfc low circulation where the storm formed, I'd guess cold pool generation from dry air off the deck also aided in the speed. The cu just south of the storm where it formed looked real bad/high based....dry.

Sounding 7pm at Rapid City that day...

55-75 knots between 500-400mb(granted back that off some as far east as Vivian but not massively so). You take any bit of backed low level flow with that, turn a storm right some on a front, stick high instability there, and you also have a sw upper jet...pushing 100 knots at RAP... with the storm going ese....monsters will happen.
 
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