Largest Hailstone

This may be old news by the time you read it, but the 8 inch diameter hail that fell in Vivian, South Dakota on July 23rd is challenging the record for the largest hailstone ever. It measures 8 inches in diameter and has a circumference of 18.5 inches (remember, circumference is the distance around an object) The current record is a 7 inch diameter hailstone that fell in Aurora, Nebraska on June 22, 2003 with a circumference of 18.75. Coffeyville, Kansas held the record for a number of years with a hailstone that measured 5.7 inches in diameter and had a circumference of 17.5 inches.

We should be thankful that 8 inch hail doesn't happen often. As a meteorologist, we are astounded at how strong the updraft winds(wind going up in the atmosphere) must be to keep a hailstone of 8 inches suspended for any period of time. As a rule of thumb, updraft winds of 100 mph is usually necessary to keep baseball size hail aloft, and that's only 2.75 inches in diameter.

The weather pattern continues to favor hot weather, with the main storm track going around us. It is nothing unusual for this time of the year, and we won't see many changes until we get to the end of the first week of August, or the beginning of the second full week. But lets not rush things along, because before we know it, we'll be wanting warmer weather back.