Vigo Park, Texas – Storm trackers in the Texas Panhandle recovered a massive hail stone which researchers say will likely be a new state record.
Val and Amy Castor, veteran storm chasers for Oklahoma City television station KWTV, discovered a chunk of hail more than 7 inches long Sunday along the road near Vigo Park while chasing a large storm system.
Val Castor said the stone was the size of a pineapple.
“This is the biggest hail I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been chasing storms for over 30 years,” Castor said.
Castor said several baseball-sized hailstones fell while he was driving, including one that shattered his windshield, before he spotted the large chunk in a roadside ditch.
“I could see it from probably 100 yards away,” he said.
The massive hailstone is believed to be a new state record, surpassing a 6.4-inch (16.25-centimeter) hailstone found in Hondo in 2021. It has yet to be confirmed by a group of researchers that includes climatologist from the state of Texas, Jordan said. Salem, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Lubbock.
O heaviest hailstone ever recorded in the United States it had a reported diameter of 11 inches (27.94 centimeters) and weighed almost 2 pounds (907 grams). It was discovered near Vivian, South Dakota, in July 2010, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
