Data for journalists
IndependentNot affiliated with NOAA or the National Weather Service.
National Storms turns public NOAA storm reports, NOAA radar hail estimates and Census data into pages, tables and files you can quote. Everything here is free to use with credit. This page has the press contact, the license and how to credit us, the embeddable card, downloads, the API, the studies, and this year's numbers.
Latest numbers, 2026
From January 1 through November 6, 2026, NOAA's preliminary 2026 storm reports include 5,116 hail, 21,241 damaging-wind and 1,523 tornado reports. The largest hail reported was 6.10″ (softball size) on March 10, 2026, 1 mi SSE of Kankakee, IL.
In 2026 through November 6, radar estimated hail of 1 inch or larger over about 9.8 million homes on 210 storm days, counting each day separately. By the same date in 2025 the count was about 8.3 million, and the highest since 2020 was 2023 (about 13 million). The biggest single day was July 27, 2026, with about 1.4 million homes inside the swath.
Biggest hail days of 2026 by homes inside 1-inch radar-estimated hail
| Storm day | Homes inside 1″+ hail | Radar max | Hail reports |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 27, 2026 | 1,448,218 | 5.00″ | 59 |
| April 25, 2026 | 586,944 | 4.59″ | 98 |
| April 27, 2026 | 414,286 | 3.34″ | 129 |
| March 10, 2026 | 316,838 | 4.23″ | 155 |
| April 14, 2026 | 297,402 | 3.17″ | 109 |
Largest hail reported in 2026
| Date | Size | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 10, 2026 | 6.10″ (softball) | 1 mi SSE of Kankakee, IL |
| Mar 10, 2026 | 5.00″ (softball) | 3 mi NE of Campus, IL |
| Mar 10, 2026 | 5.00″ (softball) | 2 mi NNW of Buckingham, IL |
| Apr 29, 2026 | 5.00″ (softball) | 2 mi S of Camp Wood, TX |
| Mar 10, 2026 | 4.80″ (softball) | Darien, IL |
2026 storm reports are preliminary and will change when NOAA finalizes the year (why). Homes inside a swath are counted per storm day and are radar estimates, not damage counts. More: homes inside hail swaths, 2026 hail season recap.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports; NOAA MRMS radar hail estimates (MESH) via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet; 2020 Census housing units. Data through November 6, 2026. Methodology
Latest same-day numbers
The morning after a storm day with 1-inch radar-estimated hail over 10,000 or more homes in a county (and a NOAA hail report in that state the same day), its storm-day page gets a “Numbers you can quote” box: one line per county, a swath image and the credit line. The last 14 such days:
October 24, 2026
On October 24, 2026, about 12,800 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 3 counties; the most were in El Paso County, TX (about 10,700).
October 23, 2026
On October 23, 2026, about 40,200 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 2 counties; the most were in El Paso County, TX (about 28,700).
- About 11,400 homes in Palm Beach County, FL, were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger on October 23, 2026.
October 21, 2026
On October 21, 2026, about 164,000 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 6 counties; the most were in Maricopa County, AZ (about 148,000).
October 20, 2026
On October 20, 2026, about 53,000 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger in one county, Maricopa County, AZ.
October 13, 2026
On October 13, 2026, about 34,000 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 12 counties; the most were in Shawnee County, KS (about 23,800).
September 18, 2026
On September 18, 2026, about 21,100 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 9 counties; the most were in Davis County, UT (about 16,800).
September 15, 2026
On September 15, 2026, about 26,200 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 8 counties; the most were in Lubbock County, TX (about 19,200).
September 11, 2026
On September 11, 2026, about 31,200 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 15 counties; the most were in Tarrant County, TX (about 14,400).
September 8, 2026
On September 8, 2026, about 100,000 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 4 counties; the most were in Polk County, IA (about 96,700).
September 5, 2026
On September 5, 2026, about 62,600 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 41 counties; the most were in Johnston County, NC (about 10,600).
September 4, 2026
On September 4, 2026, about 70,300 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 32 counties; the most were in Guilford County, NC (about 17,200).
September 3, 2026
On September 3, 2026, about 216,000 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 35 counties; the most were in Allegheny County, PA (about 105,000).
- About 12,500 homes in Washington County, WI, were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger on September 3, 2026.
September 2, 2026
On September 2, 2026, about 48,500 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 16 counties; the most were in Oakland County, MI (about 32,200).
August 28, 2026
On August 28, 2026, about 37,300 homes were inside radar-estimated hail of 1 inch or larger across 10 counties; the most were in Harris County, TX (about 27,500).
Homes are 2020 Census housing units in block groups whose center of population lay inside NOAA MRMS radar-estimated hail (MESH) of 1 inch or larger during the storm day (7 a.m. to 7 a.m. Eastern). These are radar estimates of hail size, not damage counts.
License: CC BY 4.0
Our counts, tables, maps, charts and CSV files are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. In plain words: you can copy, republish, chart and adapt them, in print, online or on air, including for commercial use, without asking. The one condition is credit: name National Storms, link to the page you used where you can, and say if you changed the numbers. The NOAA and Census data underneath is public domain; the license covers what National Storms built from it.
How to credit us
- In a story: “according to National Storms' analysis of NOAA storm reports”, with a link to the page.
- Under a chart or map: every chart on the site carries this credit line. Use it as is:
Source: National Storms (nationalstorms.com), CC BY 4.0, data from NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports.
- In a citation or footnote: every page ends with a “Cite this page” line: title, link, the date the data runs through, and the license. For example:
National Storms. “Storm reports for May 28, 2024.” https://nationalstorms.com/storms/2024-05-28/. Data through November 6, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
For radar figures, “according to NOAA radar estimates compiled by National Storms” works too. Please say “radar-estimated” for swath sizes and areas, and “near” for reports by distance: these are estimates and reports near a place, not damage at a property. National Storms is independent and not affiliated with NOAA or the National Weather Service.
The embeddable city card
Every city with a hail record has a small card for your page: hail days within 5 miles since 1955, the last hail, the largest stone, and how often 1-inch hail comes back. It updates daily, has no scripts or tracking, and links back to the city's page. Open any city page and use “Embed this on your site”, or copy this one for Denver:
Downloads
- Storm report downloads: every NOAA hail, wind and tornado report since 1950 as CSV, one file per state, year and type.
- Each study page links the CSV behind its tables.
API and MCP server
- National Storms API: free JSON, no key. Hail near a latitude and longitude (radar estimates and storm reports), one storm day's summary, and a city's hail record.
- MCP server at
https://nationalstorms.com/mcpfor AI assistants (Streamable HTTP, no sign-in): the same three lookups as tools.
Studies
- Hail Belt 2026: how often 1-inch radar-estimated hail falls on a typical spot in every state and county.
- The most hail-prone US cities.
- Homes inside 1-inch hail swaths, by day, state and county since 2020.
- Major US hail storms since 2019, each with its own page.
- Hail size chart, and a hail season page for each state, such as Texas hail season (all states are listed on the size chart).
- All of them: data desk.
Background for a story
- How to check if it hailed at your address
- Hail size chart and roof damage
- Hail vs wind damage
- What radar-estimated hail (MESH) is and isn't
- Storm reports: preliminary vs final
Every source and method: methodology & sources.
Press contact
Email press@nationalstorms.com for a number for a story, a custom cut of the data, or a question about how a figure was made. The methodology page answers most questions about method.