Record Largest Hailstone for Texas (28 April 2021)...and Margaritas

[Randy Jennings]

On April 28, 2021 a record breaking hail storm hit the Hondo TX area. NWS conformed a new TX record hailstone measuring 6.4 inches across, 12 inches in circumference, and weighing more than a pound. They received reports of a 6.57 inch hailstone, but it could not be confirmed because it was turned into a batch of margaritas before it could be officially messured.

Full story atnd pics at Record-breaking hailstone fell near San Antonio. A bigger one went into margaritas.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I had to kinda cock my head to the side (like a dog) when I read this passage:

Rather amazingly, members of the NWS were able to use radar to detect almost the precise moment the record-breaking ice fell, and put it at approximately 7:35 p.m.

So the "almost precise" moment was approximate?

(I get the semantics, but taken at face value, that phrase does seem silly)

On a more serious note, though, I'm not sure how that can be done, as there is no way radar can detect individual hydrometeors that are substantially smaller than the radar resolution volume, as is the case here (and pretty much everywhere far-field of the radar site, provided it is not detecting a meteor/asteroid larger than a house). So...I don't buy this statement even with the goofy wording taken into account.

 

[Randy Jennings]

I suspect that was some embellishment by the reporter. This is one of the hazards of cutbacks in the newsrooms - hardly any "beats" anymore and reporters are all "jack of all trades - master of none". In the old days a reporter on the weather beat would know better.

 

[Randy Jennings]

Offical report posted. Intesting that until this event, Texas had no offical hail record (see report towards end).

https://twitter.com/x/status/1408113131520417794

 

[Jeff Duda]

Most states don't. The notion of a nationwide data base of state records like those for hail only came into fruition about 15 years ago with the advent of the State Climate Extremes Committee from NOAA. Before that, it was probably up to individual state climate offices to keep such records, and I'm betting most of them outside of the core of tornado alley didn't bother to keep such records.