That Must Have Hurt: Likely New Record Sized Hailstone In Texas

This hailstone, found near Hondo, Texas on April 28, was
6.4 inches in diameter, likely the largest hailstone
in Texas history. 

They say they make everything bigger in Texas.

Including hailstones, apparently. 

During a barrage of Texas hail storms on April 28 that likely caused well over $1 billion in damage, a giant hailstone fell near Hondo, Texas, and it is likely a record big one. 

The hailstone was measured at 6.4 inches in diameter, or about the size of a honeydew melon. 

The hail fell from an immense supercell thunderstorm near Hondo, Texas, west of San Antonio.  That storm - at least on radar and satellite, was one of the largest, most intense supercells I have seen.  It produced a tornado, winds of more than 80 mph and lots of giant hail stones, many of them as big or bigger than softballs. 

The storm weakened a bit by the time it got to the major city of San Antonio, but still caused a lot of damage there. 

In Hondo, which experience the supercell at peak strength, the wind driven, gigantic hail was so intense that the stones crashed through roofs and even walls of some homes. 

As soon as the storm passed, a woman retrieved the big hailstone from her property and threw it in her freezer. 

The National Weather Service office in New Braunfels, Texas helped dispatch the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety to check out the big hailstone. 

The IBHS has a fancy 3-D image scanner that can examine hailstones in detail.  They used the scanner to measure the hailstone at 6.4 inches in diameter. 

Radar image of the intense supercell storm over Hondo,
Texas on April 28 that likely produced the largest 
hailstone in Texas history. 

If you're wondering why an insurance related company would buy and expensive 3-D  scanner and go around measuring hailstones, it's because they want to reduce hail-related costs.  

The scanners can help the insurance industry understand the density and shape of hailstones and how they cause damage. 

Perhaps from there, roofs, windows, vehicles and other objects can be designed in ways to minimize hail damage, especially in areas of the country that are most prone to such storms. Hail typically causes more than $10 billion in damage annually in the United States.

As big as that Hondo hailstone was, it's still not the biggest on record for the United States. A hailstone that fell from the sky and onto Vivian, South Dakota on July 23,2010 measured a huge eight inches in diameter. 

That's about as wide as a sheet of standard printer paper, but lord knows that Vivian hailstone was a lot heavier than that!