Huge ‘pineapple’ size 18 cm hailstone shatters Texas state record
The hailstone that fell in Texas back in 2024 is significantly larger than the largest hailstone ever observed in Canada
A mammoth hailstone that crashed out of the Texas skies on a balmy evening in June 2024 now holds the record for the largest hailstone ever recorded in the state.
Experts confirmed this week that the stone measured just over 18 centimetres (7.1 inches) in diameter, ranking among the largest hailstones ever reliably observed.
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Robust instability over the Texas Panhandle gave rise to powerful supercell thunderstorms on the evening of Sunday, June 2, 2024.
One of those storms rolling over farmland and fields southeast of Amarillo grew particularly intense as it approached the tiny community of Vigo Park.
The storm looked ferocious on radar. Diverging winds at the top of the storm peaked at nearly 380 km/h, which is indicative of an exceptionally strong updraft that was more than capable of supporting giant hailstones.
Veteran storm chaser Val Castor spotted the hailstone along the side of the road.
Castor told the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) that he thought it was litter and initially drove past it, but decided to double back and snap some photographs once he saw that it was indeed a hailstone. "It was about the size and shape of a good size pineapple," he told the NWS.
Experts with the State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) used those photos to validate the size of the record-breaking stone at just over 18 cm (7.1 inches) in diameter. This beats the previous Texas state record of 16.3 cm (6.454 inches) set back in 2021.
The giant 2024 hailstone ranks among the largest ever reliably observed. The world-record hailstone measured 20.3 cm (8.0 inches) in diameter, leaving behind a crater in the ground when it fell in Vivian, South Dakota, on July 23, 2010.
Canada’s largest hailstone on record was a 12.3-cm diameter stone that fell near Markerville, Alberta, on August 1, 2022.
The vast majority of hail that falls during severe thunderstorms is too small to cause significant damage. Destructive hailstorms do happen from time to time, especially in places where supercell thunderstorms are common such as the Prairies and the southern U.S.