Huge Texas Hailstone Last Wednesday May Have Set a State Record

 Jonathan Erdman

Published: May 2, 2021

A Texas hailstone Wednesday evening may have been the largest documented in state history, according to preliminary analyses.

The hailstone was captured, photographed and shared on social media last Wednesday, April 28, by Lino Ramirez in Hondo, Texas, about 40 miles west of downtown San Antonio.

You can see how the massive hailstone dwarfed the size of a quarter, which is the typical minimum hail size the National Weather Service considers "severe hail."

A massive hailstone, compared to the size of a quarter (left), recovered in Hondo, Texas, on April 28, 2021.

An analysis of the hail photo above from Pennsylvania State University suggests the hailstone's maximum width may have been up to about 6.5 inches, roughly the size of a honeydew melon.

A second analysis of the photo also concluded the hailstone may have been as wide as 6.5 inches, according to Ian Giammanco, a research meteorologist and engineer specializing in hail at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.

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Unofficially, the largest hailstone on record in Texas is believed to be between 6 and 8 inches in diameter on Dec. 6, 1892, in Gay Hill, according to weather historian Christopher Burt.

Six-inch diameter hail smashed the windshield of a storm chaser on June 12, 2010, near Sunray, Texas.

On May 16, 1946, six-inch diameter hailstones in San Antonio "struck the ground with such momentum that they bounced upward and broke second-story windows in some buildings," according to Texas Weather, by George W. Bomar.

The largest hailstone ever measured in the U.S. was 8 inches in diameter in Vivian, South Dakota, on July 23, 2010.

The Hondo hailstone may have weighed just over a pound, according to Julian Brimelow, a scientist with Environment Canada. That's less than the heaviest U.S. hailstone from Vivian, South Dakota (1.94 pounds), and also the world's heaviest hailstone, 2.25 pounds in Bangladesh in April 1986.

Giammanco estimated the massive hailstones may have been falling at speeds of 110 to 120 mph. It's no wonder these hailstones punctured through the roof, even a ceiling, of at least one home.

The supercell responsible for the gargantuan hail tracked from northern Mexico into Del Rio, Texas, then into the city of Hondo before weakening, while still dumping hail up to golfball size on the west side of San Antonio.

South Texas hail reports on April 28, 2021. Hail of 2-inch diameter and larger are plotted by the larger blue icons. Hail smaller than that is indicated by the smaller icons.

A National Weather Service damage survey found a 34-mile long and up to 9-mile wide swath of damaging winds in Medina County, including Hondo, from the supercell.

Winds estimated from 80 to 110 mph whipped the huge hailstones leading to severe damage in a trailer park, to vehicles and trees, and roofs. A brief EF1 tornado was spawned southeast of Hondo, according to the NWS survey.

This South Texas storm was one of three separate hailstorms over Texas and Oklahoma on April 28, which likely inflicted at least $1 billion damage combined.

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An ad hoc State Climate Extremes Committee of meteorologists and scientists would have to examine the Hondo hailstone and past historical records to determine if this is indeed a new Texas hail record.

Since 2009, state record hailstones have been documented in Colorado, Alabama, Illinois, Oklahoma and Vermont.

A 2020 study documented what might be a world record hailstone, possibly as wide as 9.3 inches, in Córdoba Province, Argentina, on Feb. 8, 2018.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.