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National Weather Service
This hailstone was declared the largest on record to hit Hawaii.
At 4.25 inches long, 2.25 inches tall and 2 inches wide, a hailstone that fell on the windward side of Oahu this month has been declared the largest on record to hit Hawaii, the National Weather Service announced.
Records for Hawaii go back to 1950 and the previous record was a relatively puny 1 inch in diameter.
"The record-setting hailstone was dropped by a supercell thunderstorm on the windward side of Oahu and produced large hail in Kaneohe and Kailua," the service said in a statement. "Numerous reports of hail with diameters of 2 to 3 inches and greater were reported."
"Hail to the size of golf balls and baseballs can only form within intense, thunderstorms called 'supercells'," the service added. "These supercells need warm, moist air to rise into progressively colder, drier air; as well as winds changing direction and increasing speed with increasing height off the ground. For both sets of conditions to exist at the same time in Hawaii is extremely rare, but did occur on March 9. Conditions were ideal for a supercell to form, which on National Weather Service radar imagery looked exactly like such storms in the central portions of the contiguous United States where severe hail larger than an inch in diameter is most common."
The March 9 supercell also spawned a tornado with winds of 60-70 mph in Lanikai and Enchanted Lakes on Oahu.
A hailstone that hit Vivian, S.D., on July 23, 2010, holds the U.S record for largest diameter (8 inches) and for weight (1.938 pounds). A hailstone in Aurora, Neb., on June 22, 2003, has the largest circumference (18.75 inches).
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Wow, it looks like a flower, hope no damage was done.
I was thinking the same thing! Even the hail there looks beautiful. Hope no serious damage was done.
I was in Germany in 2003 (bad aibling(sp))...we arrived after the fact, but apparently the had a hailstorm several days before we arrived...cars we completely trashed, but what i'll always remember is the hail dents in upright metal doors...one local described it as a nolan ryan hailstorm. sideways baseball sized hail
I thought it looked like a sea shell. In Hawaii, that would even make sense.
If they had found it 30 minutes earlier, it would have been the largest ever found on on earth.
Actually, it was a 200,000-ton comet, but most of it melted before it hit the ground. :D
No climate change here. Move along.
Glad nobody was standing under that sucker.
The Sky is Falling..
I've had ones as round as as big as softballs trash my car with me still in it. THAT was scary!
I've seen hail stones larger than grape fruits peel bark off of trees and even total an entire lot of Nissan cars in South Fort Worth (Hulen area).
I grew up in North FW (Saginaw area), most people don't uderstand what bad weather is
welcome to 2012. buckle up!
Hey, where can I get a NWS ruler like that? ;)
It was originally the size of a bean bag chair and they only found it when Al Gore, got up from sunning himself. That's all that was left. Darn Gore-bal warming.
Come on Alan. Give it a break. We are talking about hail.
My, what a large hailstone that is.
"A hailstone that hit Vivian, S.D., on July 23, 2010, holds the U.S record for largest diameter (8 inches) and for weight (1.938 pounds). A hailstone in Aurora, Neb., on June 22, 2003, has the largest circumference (18.75 inches)." This makes no sense. If the largest is 8 inches in diameter, it is also the largest circumference. Going back to middle school math. circumference=2*pi*r or here: 2*3.14*4=25.12 inches, which is larger than 18.75 by quite a bit.
Hawaii gas stations report thousands in revenue loss on the sale of ice.