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No. 91: Jan-Feb 1994

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Remarkable Hailstones

Oddly shaped hailstones from Tulsa
Oddly shaped hailstones from the 1993 Tulsa fall. Such weird shapes are duplicated by the million by some unappreciated storm mechanism. Dimensions in mm.
October 16, 1993. Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"Circa 5:00 PM, CDT, anomaly witness Keith L. Partain, a trained entomological systematicist, heard a tornado siren. Funnel-like phenomena were reported by local weathercasters, one of which approached within one mile of the witness before it lost its vorticity. This was between 5:00-5:15 PM and parenthesized the interval of anomalous hail. In the target interval numerous hail peppered the area described above. Partain observered shapes which did not conform to spherical and collected several specimens, which he immediately froze."

See accompanying figure for shapes and dimensions.

(Partain, Keith L.; private communication, October 17, 1993.)

Comment. Often such grotesque hail-stones are produced in immense quantities -- a meteorological factory of the absurd -- and we do not know how this production line operates!

From Science Frontiers #91, JAN-FEB 1994. � 1994-2000 William R. Corliss