Severe thunderstorms in Nebraska back on June 22nd may have produced a new record size hailstone for the United States. With cloud tops as high as 71,000 feet, massive thunderstorm complexes passed over Hamilton County, Nebraska on that Sunday night. Hail began to fall, producing 10 to 12 inch diameter impact craters in the soil surface. Most of the hailstones broke up on impact, some falling through the roof of several homes. Two of the hailstones from Aurora, NE were collected and preserved for National Weather Service inspection and measurement. One measured 6.5 inches in diameter and 17.3 inches in circumference, while the other measured 7 inches in diameter and 18.75 inches in circumference. The recognized record hailstone size in the United States is from a thunderstorm over Coffeyville, KS on September 3, 1970 that produced a stone 5.7 inches in diameter and 17.5 inches in circumference. Staff from the National Center for Atmospheric Research will soon
determine whether or not one of the Aurora, NE hailstones represents a new record.