Its official! The hailstone from Vivian, SD is the largest ever in US history

[Jarrod Barnett]

Severe Studios reports that it was confirmed today by NWS ABR that the 8" diameter hailstone that fell in Vivian, SD on Friday is officially the largest ever in the US.


http://www.severestudios.com/vivian-hail-officially-sets-record

"The National Weather Service in Aberdeen, SD has confirmed to SevereStudios that the hailstone that fell in Vivian last Friday (July 23) is officially a U.S. record, in two categories.

The hail measured at 8 inches in diameter and weighed just under 2 pounds. Further details will come in a NOAA Press Release.

The Aurora, NE hailstone in 2003 still holds the circumference record at 18.75 inches. The Vivian stone measured approximately 8.5 inches around."



For those who may not know about the stone in discussion here is the article from last Friday.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=abr&storyid=55671&source=0

 

[Ryan Wichman]

The Aurora, NE hailstone in 2003 still holds the circumference record at 18.75 inches. The Vivian stone measured approximately 8.5 inches around."

That number seems a bit off if it is already 8 inches wide.

Anyway, always fun to break records. Glad my car wasn't parked under that thing...on second thought I could have used the insurance money

 

[Jeff Duda]

That number seems a bit off if it is already 8 inches wide.

You're right about that, as a nearly spherical hail stone that size should be around 25" in circumference. The stone in the pictures shown seems to be reasonably spherical.

 

[Jarrod Barnett]

That number seems a bit off if it is already 8 inches wide.

I thought that too but.... what do I know.

Im just the messenger. lol

 

[Andy Jackson]

That's excellent news... I wonder if there is an upper limit to the potential size of hailstones.

 

[Rebekah LaBar]

The Severe Studios post had a typo (missing a 1) - note in the NWS Aberdeen photos, the circumference is 18.5 inches.

I can't even begin to imagine a hail stone that large!

Patrick Marsh has a nice write-up on his thoughts on and radar observations of the supercell that produced the stone. He says the hail stone weighed 1.9 pounds, as opposed to the Aurora, Nebraska stone that weighed about 1.6 pounds.

 

[MatthewCarman]

I am starting to think 10" hail or larger is not impossible and I would not be suprised if it happened.

 

[Patrick Marsh]

I am starting to think 10" hail or larger is not impossible and I would not be suprised if it happened.

Although it isn't "official", this hail storm produced 11" hailstones per eyewitness reports. The finder of the new US record hailstone readily admits that the hailstone he picked up wasn't the largest hailstone he saw. He was looking for "spikey" and interesting shaped hailstones, not the largest.

 

[Adam Adkins]

My question is just how fast must that updraft be going to suspend hailstones up that size?

 

[Mike Smith]

Does anyone have a radar image of that storm?

 

[Jim Saueressig]

Found this article.

Record USA Hailstone cloud photo released... Have I seen that photo before?
Edit, Yup....

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showpost.php?p=279917&postcount=2

Jack Benson sends a photo into TheWeatherSpace.com. He states this is the cloud that dropped the now largest hailstone on record in Vivian South Dakota on July 23rd, 2010.

Benson was out storm spotting for the National Weather Service that day and says there might even have been a tornado associated with it.

Take out the copyright and the antenna add some contrast and presto. I got a good head shaking out of it anyways.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Does anyone have a radar image of that storm?

4 posts above yours is a start.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

And for what it is worth, here is a photo of the storm exactly when it was over Vivian. Figured I'd post it in this thread too given its the latest thread and surely more recent viewers won't take note of the others. And it is probably relevant as to what it looked like precisely at the time it was pounding Vivian. The video I have shows the intense wrapping lowering moving into town just prior to this still...which illustrates how much the updraft was moving over town.

Vivian is about 1 mile west of me here just on the other side of that hill. On the video you can see the town as I drive east and the plowing/twisting more upright lowering kicking up dirt. That made the tornado reports seem rather legit as it did not look friendly at that time. As can be seen above it was now undercutting that area hard.

 

[Patrick Marsh]

Does anyone have a radar image of that storm?

In addition to the radar images I've posted on my blog (linked above), I have the radar data archived for the event and can quickly create additional images (at better resolution...the ones on the blog were shrunk for better viewing on smaller monitors causing a degradation in appearance.

 

[Chad Cowan]

Found this article.
Record USA Hailstone cloud photo released... Have I seen that photo before?
Edit, Yup....
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showpost.php?p=279917&postcount=2

Take out the copyright and the antenna add some contrast and presto. I got a good head shaking out of it anyways.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention, Jim. They're supposedly "in the process of taking it down", whatever that means.

Here is the original, taken near Platte, SD about 30 minutes after it passed over Vivian. It was shot at 10mm with a 1/30 second exposure, somehow I managed to get a lightning bolt in there. Luckiest shot I've ever taken.