Biggest hail experience?

[Scott Blair]

The biggest hail I've been in came from the May 29, 2004 Jamestown, KS supercell. The stones were near 5" diameter.

The largest hail I've seen was from a hail survey on June 23, 2003 near Aurora, NE. The largest stone we measured was 6", but another stone was found larger than that (which broke the Coffeyville, KS record). In fact, it's very likely some stones were as large as 8-9" before breaking/melting based on the ground impacts found during the survey.

The photo below is a 5" diameter stone from 2003...

Scott Blair
http://www.targetarea.net/

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

It doesnt hail that often in Illinois...and even more rarely does it get very large. I personally seem to repel hail, as ive only encountered if a handfull of times...but did see golfball sized on July 13 2004...But, a few years ago I also saw marble sized hail that accumulated a couple inches on the ground.

 

[Colin P.McIntyre]

The largest hail i have seen with my own eyes was back in August of 1992
when i moved into residence at Olds College.The town of Olds is between
Redeer and Calgary in a area known as hailstorm Alley.Some of the
largest hail in the world falls hear.The hail i seen that day was golfball.

 

[John Diel]

1970 - Coffeyville Kansas. Cantelope size and larger. In fact, up until recently, the largest hailstone in the US was recorded there. 17.5 inches.

My Brother and I went out with my Father's hard hats and buckets. We found stuff that was softball size. Luckily (Boy it's good to be dumb when you're young!) we didn't get hit while out running around like that. :roll:

 

[Cstok]

Baseball and a few softball sized stones May 29th 04, between Bridgeport and Geary in OK.

 

[Mickey Ptak]

5/12/04 west of Atica, KS.
Luckly we didn't get pounded by it.

Mick
[Broken External Image]:http://www.mesomick.com/20041205/a10.jpg
[Broken External Image]:http://www.mesomick.com/20041205/a11.jpg

 

[Jimmy Deguara]

Andrea,

Let me clarify. We did not get anywhere near the largest hail in our hands but we passed some very large chunks in this hailstorm.

Go to the video stills catalog from here
http://www.australiasevereweather.com/video/index.html

or directly from here - you can see links to separate events:

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/vide...deo/index2.html

You can see a large hailstone smacking the road on the 12th May 2004




This is a set of video stills prepared for this event. It occurred on the 24th October 2004 - not that it is a stronger left mover with favourable updraft on the northern side (southern hemisphere). All reversed.

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/vide...4/20041024.html

We don't want to go through hail and that wasn't our plan but with the road network, we had no choice but either to stay behind or go through. In hindsight, had we gone all the way through, the car would have had shattered windows by the larger hailstones. 8cm hailstones with little winds did not smack through the windows. Unlike the hailstones that did in my friends car about 2 weeks later:

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/stor...s/200411-01.htm

There is a small video of the impact and quick retreat in this report.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

 

[Tim Vasquez]

I have been extremely diligent about keeping out of hail shafts, partly because a car can get bonked on seals and trim, opening the way for leaks that can't be fixed easily. You can repair any window and body, but trim/seal leaks can be annoying; I had that happen in the early 1990s when my Nissan got pegged by a golf ball hailstone above the windshield. I've found it isn't really difficult to stay out of hail if you can keep fully cognizant of what the storm is doing. The largest I've seen was May 8, 1998 near Graham, Texas when the storm was moving so fast that I was losing my conceptual model of what it was doing and got caught in the wrong area. I'd have to rank it as marginal tennis ball size (about 2 1/2"), though baseballs fell elsewhere. Going in a group I've chased with Gene Rhoden more than anyone else, and likewise he's been pretty good about staying out of the hail.

I've also made it a habit to park & point the car away from the outflow when it looks inevitable that I'll be in hail; that way only the back of the car suffers any damage and I don't get any hailstones in my lap or in the windshield or headlamps.

Tim

 

[Andrea Griffa]

Originally posted by Jimmy Deguara
Andrea,

Let me clarify. We did not get anywhere near the largest hail in our hands but we passed some very large chunks in this hailstorm.

This is a set of video stills prepared for this event. It occurred on the 24th October 2004 - not that it is a stronger left mover with favourable updraft on the northern side (southern hemisphere). All reversed.

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/vide...4/20041024.html

We don't want to go through hail and that wasn't our plan but with the road network, we had no choice but either to stay behind or go through. In hindsight, had we gone all the way through, the car would have had shattered windows by the larger hailstones. 8cm hailstones with little winds did not smack through the windows. Unlike the hailstones that did in my friends car about 2 weeks later:

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/stor...s/200411-01.htm

There is a small video of the impact and quick retreat in this report.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

Jimmy,
Really nice hail! I hope then you escaped under a tree to not destroy your car....

 

[Jimmy Deguara]

Andrea,

We did not get our car destroyed though it did get dented. As suggested, because of the winds, similar hail did serious damage to the windsheild of my friends car in a totally separate event 2 weeks later. And as suggested, had we gone fiurther towards the region closer to the main core or closer to the front of the storm, we would have been in serious trouble. Our aim though is always to remain out of the storm as much as possible. The road network here in Australia does not criss-cross the countryside but winds.

I am not trying to condone storm chasing through hail by the way and I agree with Tim's suggestion stay out!!

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

 

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi Scott,

The largest hail I've seen was from a hail survey on June 23, 2003 near Aurora, NE. The largest stone we measured was 6\", but another stone was found larger than that (which broke the Coffeyville, KS record). In fact, it's very likely some stones were as large as 8-9\" before breaking/melting based on the ground impacts found during the survey.

The photo below is a 5\" diameter stone from 2003...

Nice massive hailstones there!

Now you raise an interesting point regarding the 8 - 9 inch hailstone size. Have any studies been undertaken on the probability per unit area of finding the largest possible hailstone size? Obviously the largest hailstones are few and isolated.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

 

[Chris Hayes]

Biggest hail I've experienced was chasing an LP-Classic on May 15, 2003. It was the storm that would go on to produce a mile wide tornado. The most spectacular hailstorm I ever experienced was in May of this year. I was at the computer turned on weathertap and saw a supercell coming up from the SW. I went outside to watch the storm. It got really dark and the wind started blowing. Soon I saw a couple hail stones start to fall. In less than a minute we were having an incredible hailstorm. Many limbs were coming down from trees all over the neighborhood, as well as several trees. The entire ground was covered in hailstones. The biggest of which was about 2" in diamaeter. Some baseball and softball stones were found in other areas. Since the storm every house in my neighborhood has had it's siding and roofs replaced. My truck was covered in dents. I didnt have my camcorder with me :cry: :cry:
Anyone who wants pics of this email me at [email protected]

 

[Craig Maire II]

Largest hail witnessed!

The largest hail that I have ever encountered while tracking storms was hail 3 inches in diameter at Cedar County, Nebraska on 6/23/03! This was an extremely long duration hail event (lasting over an hour!) Eventually a nice wall cloud passed right over my area and proceeded to drop a tornado that would grow to F4 intensity and became as large as 3/4 of a mile wide! I did briefly witness this huge tornado in between lightning flashes while dodging said hail stones.

 

[John Farley]

Biggest I've seen is about 4 inches in diameter, near Thomas, OK on May 29 of this year. Luckily this was on the ground, not falling. The picture below is of a stone about 2.5 inches, taken a mile or two past where I saw the largest stones.



Note the crater to the left of the hailstone. The biggest stones reported with this storm were even larger than 4-inch. Glad I stayed out of the falling hail, especially since I was chasing in a rental car. :lol:

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I have done pretty well this year avoiding hail. The exception was after the first tornado on the Harper County storm on May 12. I tried to hurry back to the east and got pelted with a few very large hail stones. My best guess is that they were about baseball sized. I don't mind dents in my Jeep(I think it adds character) but I am not sure how much abuse the soft top can take. The one positive about chasing in the Jeep though is that the windshield is nearly vertical so I don't think I have to worry about it breaking.