Weather Technology

Texas Breaks State Hail Record

Ben Baranowski

• 1 min read
Texas Breaks State Hail Record

On the evening of June 2nd, a bunch of supercells fired along the dryline in the west Texas panhandle. Not an atypical sight for that part of the state this time of year.

Radar Reflectivity (0.5 degree tilt) from KAMA (Amarillo) courtesy of RadarScope

However, the storm that formed east of Happy, Texas had a surprise up it's sleeve.....errrr updraft. Oklahoma storm chaser Val Castor found this monster hail stone outside of Vigo Park, Texas.

Record-breaking hailstone for Texas found by Val Castor
Radar Reflectivity (top left), Base Velocity (top right), Correlation Coefficient (bottom left) and Enhanced Echo Tops (bottom right) from KAMA at 7:38pm on June 2nd.

After review by Texas State Climatologist, Jordan Salem, this stone (officially 7.25") breaks the previous state record of 6.4" from a stone found by Hondo, Texas in 2021. Amazingly, this stone is nearly an inch short of the world record, set by the Vivian, SD hailstone that measured 8" in diameter.