Wx Savvy | Storms

How Big Was The Largest Hailstone?

(Above is an actual picture of the largest hail in US history- courtesy of NOAA)

A 7" in diameter hailstone is the largest on record to fall in the United States. Think about that for a second....an ice rock bigger than 2 and a half baseballs falls from the sky at maybe 90 mph! My first car (1984 Pontiac 6000 STE) would shake at 84 mph and just couldn't do much better, and yet hail will fall at 90 to 100 mph!

This largest hail fell on Sunday night June 22nd, 2003 in Aurora, Nebraska. The Brophy family reported the large hail which was documented and recorded as the largest in US history. It was 7" in diameter and 18.75" in circumference (around the whole thing it was bigger than a Chicago style softball) and it weighed in at just under 1 pound. (http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s2008.htm)

Although the Aurora, Nebraska hail is the "largest" in the US (possibly the world), the former record holder for size is still considered the heaviest. A chunk of large hail that fell in Coffeyville, Kansas checked in at 17.5" circumference, a bit smaller than the Aurora, Nebraska hail, but weighed more at 1.67 pounds.

(Above is an actual picture of the largest hail in US history- courtesy of NOAA)

Something to remember is that in order to officially be recorded as the largest hail, someone had to go to the trouble of picking up the large hail, putting it in a freezer and contacting the weather service. So, the hail actually may have been larger because there certainly was some melting from when it hit the ground to when it was found and put in a freezer. Also, there could very well have been larger hail somewhere in the world, but no one went to the trouble to record it.

Also, notice in the pictures that the humungous hail is not smooth and round. This has to due with how hail forms (for more on hail formation, click here). Basically, individual hailstones merged together to form this irregular ice rock. This is the case with most unusually large hail. Notice the picture below (not the largest hail, but just another picture of large hail). In this picture the hail is more round, but you can still see the individual hailstones that merged together to make this hail on steroids.

(This is not a picture of the largest hail, but a big one nonetheless- courtesy of NOAA/NSSL phot library)

Please note this has been updated as of May 2006. If a larger hail is found I will try to update this page ASAP.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s2008.htm- reference for largest hail and pics thanks to NOAA.