Hail history for your address

What this lookup answers

The tool answers one question: on which dates did weather radar detect hail near a specific address, and how large was it estimated to be? Type an address, city, or ZIP, pick a search radius, and it returns every radar hail signature within that radius since 2011, with the date, the estimated maximum size, and the distance from the point you searched.

That answer matters for two reasons. First, insurance claims for hail have deadlines that run from the storm date, often one or two years, so pinning down the date is step one of any late claim. Second, hail of 1" or larger is generally accepted as capable of bruising or cracking asphalt shingles, the most common roof covering in the covered states; smaller stones usually cost granules, not structure.

Where the data comes from

Every result comes from NOAA's Severe Weather Data Inventory (SWDI), the public archive of severe weather signatures produced by the national NEXRAD radar network. A hail signature is an algorithm's estimate that a storm cell was producing hail aloft, in the cloud above a location, with an estimated maximum stone size. It is not a ground report: nobody stood in the yard with a ruler. Radar geolocation is accurate to roughly a mile, and hail that forms aloft can melt, shrink, or drift before it lands.

So read the results as strong evidence, not proof. A 1.5" signature over your block means a damaging storm was overhead and your roof deserves an inspection and photographs. It does not by itself establish that your shingles were hit. The reverse also holds: a quiet result does not prove your roof was never hit, especially for storms before 2011 or small, brief cells the algorithm scored below its reporting threshold.

What the search radius means

The radius (1, 2, or 5 miles) is the circle around your address the search covers. Because radar placement is only accurate to about a mile, a 1-mile radius can miss storms that actually passed overhead. Two miles is the sensible default for a specific address; five miles suits city or ZIP searches, at the cost of catching storms that stayed on the far side of town.

Coverage and limitations

The archive currently covers Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, with signatures from 2011 to the present; more states are loading as the national backfill completes. Results reflect what NOAA's radar algorithms recorded, nothing more: no ground truth, no roof inspections, and no data before 2011. If a date below or in your results is recent, start with the first 48 hours and check your policy's claim deadline.