A hailstorm last week in Polk County produced giant hailstones larger than grapefruits, tying a state record for hail size.
Severe thunderstorms pelted parts of Polk County near the Oklahoma border last Wednesday evening.
Several residents posted Facebook photos of hailstones ranging from tennis ball to larger than softball-size in the towns of Cove and Vandervoort. One photo showed a hailstone filling up a Kool-Whip container completely.
The largest of these hailstones was roughly 5 inches in diameter, larger than an average grapefruit, which could end up being a state record.
The largest hail previously documented in Arkansas were 5-inch diameter hailstones on January 21, 1999 and April 2, 2006 according to the National Weather Service office in Little Rock.
Another occurrence of "cigar box sized was documented in Izard County, part of a three -mile-wide hail swath on June 19, 1970, according to NOAA's Storm Events database.
Typically, extreme temperature and precipitation events that may have set state or all-time records are evaluated by an ad hoc State Climate Extremes Committee composed of meteorologists and the state climatologist. It wasn't clear at the time of this article whether such a committee would be convened for this event.
The giant hail busted windshields and one cald was reportedly killed in rural Pope County when struck by hailstones.
Since 1980, softball-sized hail (four-inch diameter) or larger has been reported, on average, once every other year in Arkansas, according to the NWS-Little Rock.
In 2018, only 18 of 4,611 total U.S. reports of hail documented by the National Weather Service were 4-inch diameter hailstones or larger.
Alabama set a new state record in March, 2018, when a hailstone more than five- inches in diameter was captured and preserved near Cullman.
The nation's largest hail by diameter and weight ever documented was an eight-inch stone weighing 1.94 pounds near Vivian, South Dakota, on July 23, 2010.
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