Among a cluster of heavy storms across Texas in 2024, storm trackers came across an enormous hailstone near Vigo Park. After extensive expert review, officials have confirmed that the hailstone (wider than an NFL football) is the largest hailstone ever discovered in Texas history.
Amy and Val Castor, veteran storm chasers, discovered the hailstone while working for KWTV based in Oklahoma City. While the two were tracking a thunderstorm, they came across the hailstone – originally mistaking it for a milk jug.
“As I was chasing this tornadic supercell, I started to notice large hail on the ground the size of softballs,” said Val Castor. “I noticed what looked like a gallon jug of milk in the ditch. As I drove past it, I was thinking no way was this a hailstone, but I turned around and went back.
“I could see it from probably 100 yards away. That’s the biggest I’ve ever seen and I’ve been chasing storms for more than 30 years”.
The enormous piece of hail is about the size of a pineapple, officially measuring 7.1 inches across (just over 18 centimeters) in diameter.
The storm chasers found the stone off the side of the road near Vigo Park—an unincorporated area roughly halfway between Lubbock and Amarillo. Before finding the massive hailstone, the couple’s windshield cracked amidst a barrage of baseball-sized hail, Castor reported.
Following a thorough review of photographic evidence and photogrammetry, the Texas state climatologist and the State Climate Extremes Committee have officially confirmed that the pineapple-sized hailstone is the new state record. It surpasses the previous record-holder, a 6.4-inch hailstone (16.4 centimeters) discovered in Hondo in 2021.
While the Vigo Park stone is the new Texas champion, the largest hailstone ever recovered in the United States was found in July 2010 in Vivian, South Dakota. That national record-holder weighed nearly 2 pounds and had a confirmed diameter of 8 inches.
