In the wake of the recent storms sweeping the state, storm trackers recovered an abnormally large hail stone in the Texas Panhandle that researchers believe will break the state record.
The hail stone, which has been compared to the size of a pineapple, spans over 7 inches long.
“That’s the biggest hail I’ve even seen,” Val Castor said, “and I’ve been chasing storms for more than 30 years.”
Veteran storm chasers, Amy and Val Castor, for KWTV in Oklahoma City discovered the massive hail stone this past Sunday while they were following a developing thunderstorm.
“I could see it from probably 100 yards away,” Castor said.
The storm chasers discovered the stone off the side of the road around Vigo Park – an unincorporated county roughly halfway between Lubbock and Amarillo. Before coming across the massive hail stone, the couple’s windshield cracked amid a flurry of hail the size of baseballs, Castor reported.
The National Weather Service expects the pineapple-size hail stone to set a new record in Texas. The previous record-holder was a hail stone discovered in Hondo in 2021 – which was about 6.4 inches long.
The Texas state climatologist as well as a group of researchers still have to confirm whether or not the hail stone outsizes the Hondo hail stone to make it official.
In the past week large parts of North and Central Texas have endured intermittent storms, bringing tornadoes, hail, heavy rain, and a derecho in Houston.
A flood warning is currently in effect in the Dallas region, in which forecasters predict minor flooding at Trinity River. The warning is in effect until the evening of Thursday, June 6.
The largest hail stone ever recovered in the United States was back in July 2010 in South Dakota, in which the stone weighed at a near 2 pounds, spanning a diameter of 11 inches.