Environment
Looking Back at America's Largest Hailstone
On this day in 2010, a town in South Dakota was visited by a two-pound ice monster from the sky.
Hail is responsible for up to $1 billion in damages a year. Surprised? Well, take a look at this hailstone. At eight inches across and nearly two pounds, this guy probably caused half that economic destruction for 2010 when it fell on July 23 of that year.
America's largest known hailstone dropped during a severe thunderstorm in Vivian, South Dakota, and was found by local man Les Scott. The National Weather Service has a sports-based system for measuring hail: There's golf ball-sized hail, as well as pool ball-, baseball-, and softball-sized. The ice monster Scott stumbled upon dwarfed all these punier balls, coming in volleyball-sized.