Whoa: Grapefruit-Sized Hailstone Might Break The Colorado Record

A grapefruit-sized hailstone that fell just northwest of Bethune, Colorado, on Tuesday may break the state’s record with a 4.83 inch diameter. It weighed 8.5 ounces and had a circumference of nearly 13 inches. 

“I've been at this office 21 years and to have something like that happen, and happen in the area that we serve, and to be able to go out there and kind of partake in history -- it was pretty special,” said Dave Thedes, a meteorologist at the Goodland, Kansas, National Weather Service. 

Bethune is on Interstate 70, about 30 miles west of the Kansas stateline. 

A family north of the town  Bethune retrieved the hailstone about 30 minutes after it fell and put it in their freezer. Photos of the stone show that it was larger before an official measurement was taken. 

Courtesy of the National Weather Service

The Colorado State Climatologists will work with a committee to determine the final measurement and declare its status as a record breaker. 

The last time Colorado had record breaking hail was July 2011 when a hailstone with a 4.5 inch diameter was recorded in Adams County. The largest hailstone ever recorded in the U.S. had an 8 inch diameter. It fell in South Dakota in 2010.