Hailstone officially a U.S. record

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Les Scott is pictured here with the hailstone he found Friday in his yard in Vivian. The National Weather Service plans to officially announce today that the stone is the biggest ever measured in the United States. (National Weather Service photo)

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VIVIAN — It’s ice-cold official: Les Scott’s hailstone is the largest ever measured in the United States.

“Wow,” Scott said when he was told Thursday afternoon.

The 55-year-old Vivian ranch worker picked up the chunk of ice last Friday after a storm pounded central South Dakota with hail. It is 8 inches in diameter with an 18.625-inch circumference. It weighs 1.93 pounds.

The National Weather Service will formally announce the record today, but Scott and NWS workers in Aberdeen received word Thursday.

Members of the National Climate Extremes Committee held a teleconference Wednesday to investigate the hailstone. They determined the measurements taken by Aberdeen NWS staffers were accurate, according to Jim Scarlett, the meteorologist in charge of the Aberdeen NWS office.

“Well, it makes us feel unique and special that it happened here,” Scarlett said. “And we’re just glad nobody was seriously injured.”

The hailstone, which had been stored in Scott’s refrigerator freezer, was taken out Thursday, placed in an ice chest and taken to Boulder, Colo.

Scarlett said it will be studied, a sample may be taken and a mold created to make copies. He said the hailstone will be kept in a cold laboratory and preserved.

NWS meteorologist Mike Fowle, of Aberdeen, said it’s important to remember this is the largest hailstone measured in American history. Bigger ones may have fallen, Fowle said, but they weren’t properly measured or stored. It’s not quite a world record for hailstones. A hailstone that was measured in Bangladesh was heavier, Scarlett said.

Scott was still proud. “It weighed more, but mine was bigger,” he said.

The previous American record hailstone was 7 inches in diameter with a circumference of 18.75 inches. It slammed to the ground in Aurora, Neb., on June 22, 2003.

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