Bizarre Star-Shaped Hailstone Ties California State Record

A lone supercell thunderstorm Saturday in northern California produced a hailstone that tied a state record – and was in the shape of a star, no less.

Photographer and storm chaser Jeff Boyce captured the bizarre-shaped hailstones just southwest of Red Bluff, California, Saturday afternoon.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I picked up a couple of [hailstones] that were wider than baseballs," said Boyce, who often chases in other parts of the country but lives in California.

"They were blowing sideways in the gusty winds. I have some bruises just from getting out of the truck to retrieve a couple."

According to the National Weather Service office in Sacramento, this star-shaped hailstone measured 3 inches in diameter from opposite ends of the star, tying the state record hailstone size, which was first set on September 2, 1960 in San Diego County.

The weird star shape is a variation of other examples of spikes on hailstones.

Wet hailstones moving slowly through a thunderstorm's updraft – a current of upward-moving air in a thunderstorm – can collide with smaller hailstones, stick together and freeze, forming a lumpy, rather than smooth, large hailstone. The bumps are the previous small hailstones before they collided with the larger hail.

(WATCH: Jim Cantore Explains How Hail Forms)

The parent supercell spawned at least one funnel cloud, and deposited accumulating hail on Interstate 5 north of Corning, prompting Caltrans snowplows into action.

According to KRCR News Channel 7 reporter Cristina Davies, one Corning neighborhood saw hail accumulations up to the bumpers of cars, known as a hail glacier, briefly turning the Sacramento Valley town into a winter wonderland typically reserved for the Sierra to the east.

Is California Hail Unusual?

From 2005-2014, an average of 25 occurrences of hail in California were reported each year to the National Weather Service, according to NOAA's Storm Events Database.

"We regularly have tornadoes, hail, major floods; you just have to know where to look," said Boyce. "In the Sacramento Valley in the last year alone I have witnessed three tornadoes and five supercell thunderstorms."

January hail isn't unusual there, either.

Cold, unstable air aloft behind strong Pacific cold fronts can lead to sufficient instability to support hail-producing thunderstorms in the Golden State in the winter or spring months. Hot, humid air accompanying moisture surges during the wet phase of the North American monsoon can bring strong thunderstorms in the summer or early fall as well.

(FLASHBACK: March 2015 Long Beach Hailstorm)

What is rare in California is hail as large as this record-tying occurrence. 

Prior to Saturday's event, NOAA's database indicated there had been only 10 instances of hail greater than golf-ball size – 1.75 inches in diameter – from 1950 through Sept. 30, 2015, the latest data available. The most recent occurrence was more than five years ago in Siskiyou County on July 26, 2010.

Of all hail reports received nationwide from 1989-2004, 95 percent of those were golf ball-size or smaller, according to a 2009 study by Ryan Jewell and Julian Brimelow. 

As record-smashing Winter Storm Jonas was hammering the East, this record-tying event was wowing meteorologists over 2,500 miles to the west.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Layers Inside Hailstones (PHOTOS)