Largest Hailstone on Record???

National Weather Service ^ | June 23, 2003 | Michael Lewis

[Jeff400000]

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE 320 PM CDT MON JUN 23 2003

...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CONDUCTS SURVEYS OF STORM DAMAGE...

SEVERE WEATHER RAVAGED CENTRAL NEBRASKA AND NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH THE EARLY MORNING MONDAY. THE HARDEST HIT AREAS INCLUDED THE NEBRASKA COUNTIES OF THAYER AND HAMILTON AND THE KANSAS COUNTIES OF JEWELL...PHILLIPS AND SMITH. THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST OFFICE IN HASTINGS DEPLOYED THE WARNING AND COORDINATION METEOROLOGIST TO THAYER COUNTY AND TWO WEATHER SERVICE EMPLOYEES TO HAMILTON COUNTY.

...THAYER COUNTY TORNADO...

AT 620 PM CDT A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN THAYER COUNTY A FEW MILES NORTH OF DESHLER. THIS TORNADO TRACKED TO THE SOUTHEAST. DEBRIS FIELDS AND SURFACE BASED REVIEW OF THE TRACK SUGGESTS THAT THE TORNADO THEN TRACKED WESTWARD THROUGH TOWN BEFORE WEAKENING AND MOVING SOUTH OF DESHLER.

THE FINAL REPORT OF TORNADIC ACTIVITY WAS AROUND 654 PM CDT... PLACING THE TORNADO ROUGHLY 8 MILES SOUTHWEST OF DESHLER.

APPROXIMATELY 30 HOMES WERE DAMAGED OR DESTROYED. NUMEROUS STRUCTURES SUSTAINED ROOF DAMAGE OR OTHER VISIBLE EXTERNAL STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. A FEW HOMES WERE SHIFTED FROM THEIR FOUNDATIONS. PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT PLACES THE TORNADO AT THE F2 RATING ON THE FUJITA SCALE.

AS OF 11 AM CDT MONDAY...THERE WERE TWO CONFIRMED INJURIES. THE INJURED WERE TRANSPORTED TO MEDICAL FACILITIES BY AMBULANCE. IN ADDITION TO THE INJURIES THERE IS ONE CONFIRMED DEATH. THE VICTIM WAS A 47 YEAR OLD MALE WHO WAS LEAVING A WORKSHOP TO SEEK SHELTER FROM THE STORM. THE DEATH OCCURRED AT APPROXIMATELY 650 PM CDT SUNDAY.

AN AERIAL SURVEY WAS NOT CONDUCTED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE. THE PRELIMINARY TRACK INFORMATION MAY BE REVISED AS MORE AERIAL FILM AND PHOTOGRAPHS BECOME AVAILABLE.

THE LAST TORNADO RELATED DEATH IN THE HASTINGS COUNTY WARNING AREA OCCURRED DURING THE GRAND ISLAND TORNADO OUTBREAK ON JUNE 3, 1980. FIVE DEATHS WERE REPORTED IN HALL COUNTY DURING THIS OUTBREAK.

...FUJITA SCALE EXPLAINED...

IN 1971, DR. T. THEODORE FUJITA OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO DEVISED A SIX-CATEGORY SCALE TO CLASSIFY U.S. TORNADOES INTO SIX INTENSITY CATEGORIES, NAMED F0-F5. THESE CATEGORIES ARE BASED UPON THE ESTIMATED MAXIMUM WINDS OCCURRING WITHIN THE FUNNEL. THE FUJITA TORNADO SCALE (OR THE "F SCALE") HAS SUBSEQUENTLY BECOME THE DEFINITIVE SCALE FOR ESTIMATING WIND SPEEDS WITHIN TORNADOES BASED UPON THE DAMAGE DONE TO BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES. IT IS USED EXTENSIVELY BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN INVESTIGATING TORNADOES (ALL TORNADOES ARE NOW ASSIGNED AN F SCALE), AND BY ENGINEERS IN CORRELATING DAMAGE TO BUILDING STRUCTURES AND TECHNIQUES WITH DIFFERENT WIND SPEEDS CAUSED BY TORNADOES.

SCALE SPEED

F0 40 TO 72 MPH F1 73 TO 112 MPH F2 113 TO 157 MPH F3 158 TO 206 MPH F4 207 TO 260 MPH F5 261 TO 318 MPH

...HAMILTON COUNTY HAILSTONE...

AT 705 PM CDT SUNDAY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HASTINGS RECEIVED REPORTS OF LARGE HAIL IN AURORA...HAMILTON COUNTY NEBRASKA. INITIAL REPORTS STATED THAT THE HAIL HAD PENETRATED THE ROOF OF A HOME, LEAVING HOLES IN THE STRUCTURE LARGE ENOUGH TO CRAWL THROUGH.

THE STONES WERE SAVED AND PLACED IN A FREEZER AT THE RESIDENCE AND TWO NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EMPLOYEES WERE SENT TO ASSESS THE DAMAGE AND RECORD THE SIZE.

THE HAILSTONE MEASURED 6.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER WITH A CIRCUMFERENCE OF 17.3 INCHES.

THIS COMPARES TO THE POTTER NEBRASKA HAILSTONE ON JULY 12, 1928. THE POTTER NEBRASKA HAILSTONE WAS 5.4 INCHES IN DIAMETER AND WEIGHED APPROXIMATELY 1.5 POUNDS.

...LARGEST HAILSTONE ON RECORD...

PRIOR TO TODAY...THE LARGEST HAILSTONE ON RECORD OCCURRED IN COFFEYVILLE KANSAS ON SEPTEMBER 3, 1970. THIS STONE MEASURED 5.7 INCHES IN DIAMETER...17.5 INCHES IN CIRCUMFERENCE AND WEIGHED 1.67 POUNDS.

&&

THE FOLLOWING ARE LINKS WHICH CAN PROVE USEFUL. ALL ADDRESSES ARE LOWER CASE AND ARE U.S. GOVERNMENT SITES.

HTTP://WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/GID HTTP://WWW.NCDC.NOAA.GOV/OA/SATELLITE/SATELLITESEYE/EDUCATIONAL/FUJIT A.HTML HTTP://WWW.ERH.NOAA.GOV/ER/BOX/HAIL.HTML

$$

MICHAEL LEWIS METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST OFFICE HASTINGS, NE 68901

[Jeff400000]

The bit on the hailstone is about 3/4 of the way through the article. I wonder what the exact diameter of the Coffeyville hailstone is; I've seen values ranging from 5.7 to 8.0 inches. The link at the bottom of the article says the Coffeyville hailstone was more than 7.0 inches in diameter. Depends on how one measures it, I guess.

[ctlpdad]

i think anything over about 1/8" would hurt like heck if it whacked you on the head.
I recall back in '95 i was on a job interview in Fort Worth, and they had a bigtime hailstorm. there were no rental cars because everyone had no glass left in their cars. The insurance companies set up tents to process the claims & the insurance adjusters they flew in occupied the whole hotel bar nightly.

[ericthecurdog]

Ain't no party like an insurance adjuster party (!?).

[Nick Thimmesch]

Hail on Viagra: pretty weird.

[SLB]

We had the same here in Central Kentucky last year. There were several cases where hail went all the wat through roof and into the living part of houses. Cars were not damaged, they were destroyed. The hail from this storm was about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. I sure would not want to tangle with anything larger.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"i think anything over about 1/8" would hurt like heck if it whacked you on the head."

Unless there is a powerful whipping wind (which is not usually associated with a hail dump in my recollection), a much larger hailstone probably would not hurt. Hailstones are not as dense as an ice cube, as they contain lots of air due to their formation process. Thus, they tend not to fall very fast (no faster than a raindrop?) and tend to weigh less than you would think. Heavier stones will tend to fall out of the cloud while small, instead of accreting new layers as repeatedly carried upward by updrafts.

[Jeff400000]

Hail density can vary. I've heard reports of softball sized hail doing nothing to cars, while some golfballs can leave dents or even take out windshields.

[TroutStalker]

My wife, her parents and daughter were driving on Interstate 70 by Lawrence Kansas about eight or nine years ago when they ran into hail. Jagged chunks of ice five to six inches wide hit the new station wagon. They had to stuff coats behind the windshield to keep it from coming in on them. The entire top of the vehicle had to be replaced.

[RipSawyer]

I have seen hail and I have sold roofing following a storm which produced softball sized hail. You sound like a man quoting something he has read or been told and who has no actual experience with real hail. If you think being struck by a large hailstone "probably would not hurt" you are sadly ignorant of the facts. Anything capable of producing deep dents several inches across in automobile bodies is going to do real damage if it strikes the human body. Any hailstone capable of doing major damage to a new architectural shingle house roof is not something that "probably would not hurt". You can take all your fancy theories and file them in the trash can.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"I have seen hail and I have sold roofing following a storm which produced softball sized hail. You sound like a man quoting something he has read or been told and who has no actual experience with real hail. If you think being struck by a large hailstone "probably would not hurt" you are sadly ignorant of the facts. Anything capable of producing deep dents several inches across in automobile bodies is going to do real damage if it strikes the human body. Any hailstone capable of doing major damage to a new architectural shingle house roof is not something that "probably would not hurt". You can take all your fancy theories and file them in the trash can."

Please try to discuss the issue with some manners. And try not to misconstrue what I wrote.

A hailstone larger than the fraction of an inch mention by the poster would not necessarily hurt. My extensive experience in hailstorms is that small (1/2" or less) stones don't hurt at all. One tend to get very wet and cold, however. I did not test the pain effect of the hailstones larger than 1".

If you dispute anything I have written, please quote it before attacking. It should help to keep you on track.

[Interesting Times]

A number of years ago, my mother and aunt were caught in a hailstorm in northern Oklahoma. The mid-60's Buick they were in was struck by about a dozen hailstones having a diameter of 3 inches. Fortunately they missed the windshields, but left dents in the metal that were half an inch deep. There is little doubt that the same impact on a person's head would produce serious injury.

The reason such injuries are rare is that 1) large hail is rare, and 2) most outdoor locations don't have people standing on them.

[RipSawyer]

" a much larger hailstone probably would not hurt."

You didn't exactly state your parameters, did you?

[AnAmericanMother]

We recently had a pretty impressive hailstorm here. At our house, the hail was the size of marbles (the big "shooters", not the regular size ones). I went sprinting out to put the truck in the garage - I grabbed up a chunk of plywood to hold over my head, but a couple of the hailstones hit me on the back of the neck and the shoulders, and they HURT!

We got the truck in the garage with only one dent on the hood, but my hubby was not so lucky. He was with his Boy Scout troop on the way to a campout, and they were caught out on the road in the worst hail of the afternoon - the size of baseballs, jagged and dense. All the cars on the road were trying to creep under gas station overhangs, bank drive-throughs, etc. but there was no room for an Expedition pulling a large trailer and full of Scouts!

$6700 worth of damage to the truck, including replacing the hood. It looked like somebody had worked it over with the back end of a ball peen hammer. They got the windshield against the side of a building so it was somewhat sheltered - didn't break. Of course all the boys were going "WOW! Look at that!" :-D

[ctlpdad]

glad no one was injured.

[AnAmericanMother]

Me too!

[Jeff400000]

To try to clear some of this up, the National Weather Service considers any hail 3/4" or larger (dime-sized) to be severe weather. If such hail is expected, they will issue a severe thunderstorm warning.

[Jeff400000]

The Wickita Eagle interviewed the guy who found the hailstone:

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/6156009.htm

[Quix]

Scriptures indicate we can expect hailstones weighing 100lbs in our era.

I don't think tinfoil hats would help.

[HarryDunne]

Rev 16:21 refers to hailstones the weight of a talent. That's 72 pounds. I would guess that's about the size of a beachball.

[kidd]

In 1993, I had to work on a Saturday. I was working in a laboratory without windows when suddenly I heard all sorts of glass breaking. I followed the noise and soon discovered that every window on one side of the building that I was working in had been broken from baseball sized hail and heavy wind. My Ford Escort had $4200 worth of damage, but amazingly - no damage to the car windows.

I later collected some of the hail when it was safe to do so. It was pretty dense stuff - probably the equivalent of a refrigerator ice cube (only about 10 times bigger).

I can easily see how something bigger would smash through a roof.