Like a pineapple: Texas hurricane hunters showed a huge prickly hailstone (5 photos)

A piece of ice falling from the sky could set a new state record. The hail was larger than an energy drink can.





Massive spiked hailstones hit Texas during a recent storm. The hurricane hunters who found the unique hailstone said they had never seen anything like it.

Val and Amy Castor, storm chasers with KWTV in Oklahoma City, discovered hailstones measuring more than 6 inches in length Sunday while tracking a severe thunderstorm.

According to Castor, the piece of ice was the size of a small pineapple. The couple photographed the hailstone next to an energy drink can and a glove to show its size.



"This is the biggest hailstone I've ever seen. And I've been chasing storms for over 30 years," he said.

He added that several hailstones the size of baseballs hit his car, with one piece of ice even breaking the windshield.

The huge hailstone discovered by the Castors is believed to have broken the state record, surpassing the 16.25 cm hailstone discovered in Hondo, southwest of Austin, in 2021.





Confirmation of whether the colossus is the record holder rests in the hands of a team of researchers, including the Texas state climatologist, said Jordan Salem, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Lubbock.

But it's certainly a far cry from the heaviest hailstone on record in the United States, which was reported to be 28cm in diameter and weigh nearly a kilogram.



The record-breaking hail was discovered near Vivian, South Dakota, in July 2010, according to the US National Center for Environmental Information.