A grapefruit-size hailstone that pummeled Oahu during a hailstorm this month has now been confirmed as the largest on record for the state of Hawaii, announced officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Record-setting hailstone from the Hawaii 'supercell' thunderstorm that hit the Hawaiian island of Oahu on March 9, 2012.
CREDIT: NOAA
A final measurement of thehailstone, which dropped from the skies on March 9, places it at 4.25 inches long, 2.25 inches tall and 2 inches wide (10.8 by 5.7 by 5 centimeters).
"According to hail report records for Hawaii kept back to 1950, the previous state record hailstone was 1 inch in diameter," Michael Cantin, warning coordination meteorologist at NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) in Honolulu, said in a statement. The NWS, along with NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee confirmed the new state record.
The record-setting hailstone was dropped by a so-called supercell thunderstorm on the windward side of Oahu that also produced large hail in Kaneohe and Kailua. Perhaps the most violent of all thunderstorm types, supercell thunderstorms can generate damaging winds large hail, and even tornadoes, according to NOAA. They are most common during the spring across the central United States.
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