Chad Cowan sent us this picture taken of the storm which produced the massive hail stone in South Dakota.
Chad tells us:
"I was out chasing last Friday in South Dakota with my girlfriend and I got a pretty good shot of the storm that dropped the hailstones that set the new world record. A friend of mine said that the NWS in Aberdeen has confirmed that the stones that fell there broke the previous record (set in Aurora, NE in 2003) and the National Climate Extremes Committee will issue a press release some time this week with the announcement. The largest stone measured had a diameter of 8 INCHES and weighed in at just under TWO POUNDS! Luckily we managed to stay out of that hail core. That would be a tough one to explain to the insurance company. I've attached the photo of that storm to this email, it was taken about 30 minutes after the record breaking stones fell in Vivian, SD. I was hanging out the window getting a picture of the beautifully striated rear flank shelf and was lucky enough to get a lightning bolt with the 1/30 second exposure. It was taken at 10mm with a wide angle lens. Feel free to use it on your blog if you would like."
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent out a release Friday saying that its National Climate Extremes Committee, which validates national weather records, said that the hailstone, which was found in Vivian, S.D., was the largest and heaviest ever discovered in the United States.
The stone was found after a severe thunderstorm on July 23 by Vivian resident Les Scott, according to a release from the agency. It is 8.0 inches in diameter and weighs 1.9375 pounds (1 pound, 15 ounces) with a circumference of 18.62 inches.
According to the release, the previous weight record was 1.67 pounds for a stone in Coffeyville, Kan., in 1970; the previous record for diameter, 7 inches, was for a hailstone found in Aurora, Neb., in 2003. The Aurora hailstone still has the greatest circumference: 18.75 inches.
"I'm just glad nobody got hurt and hope the town will recover soon," Scott said in the release.
David Hintz, the warning coordination meteorologist at NOAA's Aberdeen weather forecast office, said in the release that the Vivian hailstone could have been larger when it was first collected.
"Mr. Scott told me the area was littered with large hailstones and the largest had a greater diameter when he first found it," Hintz said in the release. "He immediately stored it and several others in his freezer, but a power outage caused some melting."
Thanks Chad!
