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The largest hailstone to strike a hailpad is often smaller than the largest hailstone observed in the immediate vicinity. This has given rise to some comment in the literature, but the apparent anomaly is only a trivial consequence of the observation process. However, relationships between these two types of maxima can be utilized via extreme value theory to make inferences concerning the largest hailstones beyond the immediate observation area.
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W.E. Bardsley (1990) studied this question.
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