Record-breaking hailstone in Colorado: 'Big hail like this can easily kill people'

[Eugene]

Source: AccuWeather

August 15, 2019

Record-breaking hailstone in Colorado: 'Big hail like this can easily kill people'

By Amanda Schmidt, AccuWeather staff writer

Monster hail fell from the sky and hammered areas of the central United States on Tuesday, shattering a state record. Earlier on Tuesday before the storms developed, AccuWeather Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer warned that Colorado's state hail record could be in jeopardy given the intensity of the storms that he saw developing.

His prediction came to fruition on Tuesday afternoon when a hailstone with an unofficial measurement of a maximum diameter of 4.83" fell in Bethune, Colorado, on Tuesday afternoon. The record was confirmed on Wednesday evening by the Colorado Climate Center and the National Weather Service office in Goodland, Kansas. The previous state record in Colorado was 4.5 inches.

As the Colorado Climate Center said on Twitter, photos indicate that the stone could have been even larger than recorded due to the time in between its falling and when it was put in the freezer.

The weight of the record-breaking hailstone came in at 8.5 ounces.

Brian Bledsoe
@BrianBledsoe
@NWSBoulder

@NWSGoodland
I am verifying what looks to be a record setting hailstone for #cowx Am told this fell near Bethune this afternoon. Would easily beat the 4.5" record... Given the way the radar looked, I wouldn't be surprised. Stay tuned!

Link to tweet

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Read more: https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/national-weather-service-investigating-whether-monster-that-hail-fell-in-colorado-broke-a-record/70009074

[sheshe2]

1. Mother Nature is sending us a message.

Heed it.

[ret5hd]

2. Stone them!!!

[defacto7]

3. They shrink in the freezer. I've collected softball size hail

that fell in my yard during the Xenia Ohio tornado back in the early '70s. They shrink quickly.