It's Official: SD Hail Stone is Largest in North America!

by Krystle Kacner
July 29, 2010


It's official: Vivian, South Dakota is home to the largest hail stone in North American.  Weighing just under two pounds and measuring eight inches in diameter.

While this is a big deal for the town of Vivian, and for the man who found it-Les Scott- it's also a big deal for the National Weather Service. 

Today, the record breaking chunk of ice is making its way from Scott's freezer to a research center in Boulder, Colorado, but not without a few pit stops.  KDLT's Krystle Kacner takes us to one those stops.

Krystle: "I'm here with Dave Hintz, who is from the national weather service and he's the guy in charge of making sure the stone gets from where it was found in Vivian to its next stop her in Valentine, Nebraska. Dave tell me what it's liked being the guy that gets to see the stone on this journey?

Dave: on a personal level it's quite an honor to be involved. Professionally, this is something I'll never be part of again in my career. These stones are very rare, so the likelihood to have the opportunity to do this again is very slim. It's highly important we make this journey to get the stone down to Boulder, Colorado down to the national center  for atmospheric research so they can study the stone and understand better  the thermo dynamic processes that went into the thunderstorm that went into the stone.

Krystle: We basically already mentioned it, how important is it that it was actually was called into you?

Dave: Two reasons: number one, the potential record we are looking at for the hail stone and the bragging right with having the biggest hail stone in North America, but from a scientific point of view, being able to look at it once they are done making the casting, they will slice it, look at the growth and the growth lawyers on it and understand the processes that went into making a stone like this.

Krstyle: Well thanks for being with us today Dave. We'll keep you updated on the stones journey, but for right now back to you guys in the studio.>