Large Hailstones

Abstract

ON Tuesday, July 13, at 2.30 p.m., hail began to fall heavily in this neighbourhood. A thunderstorm was at the time approaching rapidly from the north-east. I was struck with the extraordinary size of the stones, and going into the open air I collected six—the first that came to hand—in an accurately-tared glass, and weighed rapidly. The six stones weighed 5.766 grams. The average weight for each stone was therefore.961 gram, or 14.8 grains. A pane of glass in a skylight window had a hole driven through it by one hail-stone.