All hail the hail…

When I was five I was fascinated by hail - every time it sounded like it was raining heavily I would run outside just to check and was horribly disappointed if it was just rain.  It sounds like I’m a proper Met Geek (I’m not really), it was just that up until then I had lived in Hong Kong and never seen frozen stuff fall from the sky!  Now over the years I’ve grown up and hail has become more of a normal sight, but it still makes me smile…so imagine my interest when I heard this morning that a small town in South Dakota had broken the World Record for the largest hail stone ever recorded. 

Late in the day on July 23^rd several severe thunderstorms developed over South Dakota.  These storms brought destructive winds of up to 80mph; reports of the brief formation of a tornado and of course extremely large hail.  In Vivian, where the record breaking hail stone was found, the storms caused severe damage with hail smashing through roofs and car windshields.  The stone itself, found by Les Scott, was 20cms (8.0 ins) in diameter, 46.55cms (18.62 ins) in circumference and weighed 0.88 kg (1.94 lbs)!  And these were only its official measurements – it’s thought that due to power outages after the storm and, therefore, a lack of refrigeration the stone had melted a little from its initial size.  So the next time I see hail I’ll still smile, but also be glad that it’s not large enough to kill me!