North America's Largest Hailstone Travels From South Dakota to Colorado

by Krystle Kacner
July 29, 2010


Its official: Vivian, South Dakota is home to the largest hailstone in North America. Weighing just less than 2 pounds and measuring 8 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 made its way from Scott's freezer, to a research center in Boulder Colorado. But not without a few pit stops.

"Thanks Steve, We'll take good care of it," said Steve Apfel, the Meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Cheyenne Wyoming.

The "exchange" took place in Valentine Nebraska. North America's biggest hail stone is on it's on way to the "National Center of Atmospheric Research" or NCAR, in Boulder Colorado.

"Hailstones of this size usually don't occur, it's very rare. Baseball size is pretty uncommon, then you start talking about softball and grapefruit even that's more uncommon," said Dave Hintz, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Aberdeen.

So when Aberdeen's National Weather Service got the got call for volleyball sized hail in Vivian SD, Meteorologist Dave Hintz hit the road.

"It was pretty obvious we had an extreme event," Hintz said.

Hintz says a hailstone like this means a lot to weather related research. It can help them determine which storms will not only develop hail, but how big that hail could be.
So a safe delivery is important.

"We took into consideration shipping and the problems that can happen, and we know with our weather service personnel we'll take the greatest care possible getting the hail stone back to the researchers," Apfel said.

Meteorologist Steve Apfel is taking the dry-ice protected stone from Valentine to his Weather Service in Cheyenne Wyoming for the night. The next day it'll be on it's way to the cold laboratory in Colorado. But this journey isn't just important for the future of weather research

“I'm honored to be a part of it. This is probably a hail stone I'll never see again in my lifetime," Hintz said.

It was a long trip for these guys, but they say one they'll never forget.

"We're glad to be part of the hail express," said Apfel.

The stone should get to Colorado by tomorrow. No word yet on what they'll name stone, but National Weather Service Meteorologists says the options include the "Vivian Stone" after where it was found, or the "Scott Stone" after Les Scott who found it.