Ever seen an hailstone like this?

[Andrea Griffa]

This hailstone fell down in COFFEYVILLE Texas in 1970.It could be intersting if someone was chasing that storm in that year and to know if the storm did produce tornadoes or it didn't..
It measured 15-16 cm of diameter....This is simply crazy... It looks like the hailstone of june 6 2003 in Nebraska...

 

[Shane Adams]

Actually it was Coffeyville, KS on September 3, 1970. This stone held the world record for years until 2003 or 2004, when someone finally found one of those giant stones that seem to fall in Nebraska every year.

 

[Andrew Khan]

You say that a hail stone fell in Nebraska as of, 2003-2004, and beat the size record of that HUGE KS hailstone?! How big could this record beating Nebraska hail stone have been? I would hate to have been chasing or walking around that day.....I wonder what speed it fell to the ground at? I also read somewhere as of 2-3 years ago, that there was a hailstone in NE that left craters in yars and lawns....

 

[Mark Farnik]

Andrew, the storm you are thinking of hit the Aurora, Nebraska area on the afternoon of June 22, 2003, causing unparalleled damage. And yes, the new U.S. record hailstone fell from this updraft from hell supercell. From the NCDC report on the event:

Record setting hail occurred on the north side of Aurora. Thunderstorms erupted during the evening in south-central Nebraska. One storm near Aurora produced very large hail. One stone measured by an NWS Storm Survey team was determined to be the largest sized stone to fall in the United States. It measured 7 inches in diameter and 18.75 inches in circumference. Many other large stones were noted on the northern side of Aurora.

This beat out the Coffeyville, Kansas hailstone by a considerable amount.
If a 100 mph uprdraft is required to produce baseball size hail , I won't even begin to speculate on how strong an updraft would have to be to produce volleyball size hail , which is what the Aurora supercell did.
Just imagine what would have happened if this cell, which formed about 4:30 in the afternoon, had formed 60 miles to the east over Omaha, during rush hour... it makes me shudder to think of what the outcome could have been. It would have been along the lines of the Tokyo hailstorm sequence in "The Day After Tomorrow". And that's a scary thought to contemplate.

 

[Jay Cazel]

If I recall, Jim Reed and John Davies were on that storm and took pictures of that hail stone.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I know Jon was on it. We talked with him north of there earlier in the day. We blasted nw to the early convection and he said he wasn't so sure that was going to be the day's best play and stayed put. He was very correct. We were very wrong. That was a long drive back to get on the Aurora storm late. It reminds me how important good forecasting is and how little various radar tools can do you when you aren't in the right area at or close to initiation. But for what it is worth what I've seen of the Aurora storm's structure it wasn't visually that great. I would have traded the Aurora storm for the storm south of it as that was the real treat. Both those supercells were huge and not moving. Sigh.

 

[Dave Ewoldt]

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/gid/Web_Stories/20..._megastorms.php

 

[mikegeukes]

Source: NWS Hastings
Mike

 

[John Diel]

I remember that day in Coffeyville well. I grew up there! My brother and I had my father's hard hats on and we were trying to catch some hailstones with our baseball gloves. Natural selection at work, I tell ya!

This hail stone actually fell on the roof of a local beer joint if I remember correctly. It was, however, quite a storm. We were picking up quite a few softball and grape fruit sized hailstones that day. This particular storm was what lead me to the addiction I now bear.

 

[Andrew Khan]

Natural Selection LOL, also Darwin awards.


Here are the pictures I remembered seeing.

I would say the updraft would have had to be like 170-180 MPH right? Wonder what speed they fell at?!

 

[Jayson Prentice]

I know I saw a couple posts wondering what speed a hailstone like that would fall at...

Well I may have the answer!

I'm just going to put all the math on here, just so if I make a mistake somebody can notice it. :?

Hailstone was 7 inches in diameter, that would make a 3.5 inch radius, that has to be put into cm for the equation so, radius = 8.89 cm.

So, terminal velocity of the hailstone would be: 59.63 meters/sec. Translate that to mph, 59.63 x ~2.24= 133.4 mph!

There ya have it, terminal velocity of a hailstone that size would be a lil' over 133 mph!

 

[Andrew Khan]

I know I saw a couple posts wondering what speed a hailstone like that would fall at...

Well I may have the answer!

I'm just going to put all the math on here, just so if I make a mistake somebody can notice it. :?

Hailstone was 7 inches in diameter, that would make a 3.5 inch radius, that has to be put into cm for the equation so, radius = 8.89 cm.

So, terminal velocity of the hailstone would be: 59.63 meters/sec. Translate that to mph, 59.63 x ~2.24= 133.4 mph!

There ya have it, terminal velocity of a hailstone that size would be a lil' over 133 mph!

Wow.....wouldn't that practically go through the roof of a car? I know if it hit you in the head, you'd probably die....

 

[Jayson Prentice]

If it didn't go through it, it would sure have the roof down a couple feet! I'm sure it could though, just like it can go straight through the roof of a house. And I'm sure it would kill ya if it landed on you, I've been hit with nickel sized hail and it gives ya a pretty good sting. And I believe there has been people killed with baseball sized hail, so this thing would take ya out easily!

All I can say is that a hailstone this big is a freak of nature! With an updraft that strong in a storm... Wow!!

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

For what it is worth those stones looke to have a lot of surface area. I'd probably rather get hit by one of those than a more rounded softball. I'm sure the updraft speed would probably be fairly similar between those and a good round softball. A more impressive stone in my mind might have been the ones fallling from the supercell in nw MO May 29 2004(or maybe it was the 24...both days had tornadic sups there). I believe they were 6 inch in diamter and much smoother/rounded.

 

[Andrew Khan]

I know I saw a couple posts wondering what speed a hailstone like that would fall at...

Well I may have the answer!

I'm just going to put all the math on here, just so if I make a mistake somebody can notice it. :?

Hailstone was 7 inches in diameter, that would make a 3.5 inch radius, that has to be put into cm for the equation so, radius = 8.89 cm.

So, terminal velocity of the hailstone would be: 59.63 meters/sec. Translate that to mph, 59.63 x ~2.24= 133.4 mph!

There ya have it, terminal velocity of a hailstone that size would be a lil' over 133 mph!

Also, added to this, you would need to take i nto consideration the downdrafts/RFD going against the hail...which could add more speed to it's decent.