World Record Hail

Vivian South Dakota? Ever heard of the place? Yep, neither have I.

It has been a bizarre year around my neck of the woods, weather-wise. Giant hail in Bozeman, tornadoes in Billings and all over the NE corner, micro bursts near Glasgow…weird stuff.

weather != gadgetry, but
awesome weather phenomenon = science FTW

Well, Vivian (from here on out, “Viv”) South Dakota has claimed its colloquial fifteen minutes of fame, in the form of a world record hailstone.

large hail
that's-a a spicy-a hail-a-ball

1.9375 pounds. Nicely played, Viv.

I found this story amazing…some local news site interviewed one of Viv’s finest. Les Scott is a death-defying party animal…

“I just happened to see this one fall and the only reason I went out and got it is because it has all these fingers sticking out of it and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’ So I thought I’d go get that one,” Scott said.

Scott originally wanted to make a daiquiri out of the hail, but decided to contact the National Weather Service instead. Tuesday, they were in Vivian. They carefully took the stone from the freezer and placed it in a cooler with dry ice. The next stop was at the post office where the hail had a date with the federally certified scale. Moments later, the hailstone weighed in at 1.9375 pounds.

Daiquiri? Come the hell on Les. National news, buddy…pick something less feminine about which to wax funny.

The Great Bozeman Storm of 2010

I snapped this pic from work (in Four Corners) about twenty minutes before hell wrought down fury upon Bozeman, Montana in the form of large hail.

storm
breath-taking

Hail dents the size of Matzah Balls. Details will follow.