Verified hail records
Largest Hailstorms by City
Verified city-by-city hail-size records built for reporters, researchers, and teams that need clean historical storm context.
Verified record set
City-level hail-size ranking
This ranking highlights the largest verified hailstones tied to named localities. Entries were reviewed to remove blank-city rows and other ambiguous archive artifacts before publication.
This list removes incomplete legacy rows (missing city field or unverified locality artifacts) so the ranking is safer for publication. Last updated: March 2026.
Largest verified hailstone
8.00 in (Vivian, SD)
Highest modern-era city event
7.02 in (Vigo Park, TX, 2024)
Latest source file used
d2025_c20260224.csv.gz
Data source
NOAA NCEI Storm Events
Legacy artifact fix
Earlier archive snapshots showed a placeholder-size entry with no city name. That row is excluded to avoid publishing ambiguous records. The current top is anchored at Vivian, South Dakota.
Largest recorded hailstone chart
Chart uses recorded hail diameter (inches). Newline formatting in the citation and methodology should be adapted per publication.
Largest hailstone events (city-by-city)
| Rank | Date | City / locality | State | Diameter | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2010 | Vivian (Lyman County) | South Dakota | 8.00 in | Highest verified U.S. archive record for single-storm hailstone diameter. |
| 2 | 2010 | Wichita Airport (Sedgwick County) | Kansas | 7.75 in | Largest verified modern-era city entry after record verification pass. |
| 3 | 2024 | Vigo Park (Bexar County) | Texas | 7.02 in | Most recent large event in the modern review set. |
| 4 | 2003 | Aurora (Hamilton County) | Nebraska | 7.00 in | High-confidence historical severe-hail event. |
| 5 | 2007 | Dante (Stanley County) | South Dakota | 6.88 in | Multi-report cluster on severe outbreak day. |
| 6 | 2021 | Hondo (Frio County) | Texas | 6.42 in | One of the strongest 2020s modern measurements in this extraction. |
| 7 | 2007 | Wagner (Charles Mix County) | South Dakota | 6.13 in | Sustained large-hail interval during corridor event. |
| 8 | 2024 | Johnson City (Starr County) | Texas | 6.12 in | Severe-weather period with repeated large hail mentions. |
| 9 | 2024 | Meadville (Linn County) | Missouri | 6.00 in | Strong local footprint with repeated large reports. |
| 10 | 2010 | Sunray (Moore County) | Texas | 6.00 in | Moderately dated but still in the high-end historical set. |
| 11 | 2011 | Timken (Reno County) | Kansas | 6.00 in | Regional outbreak context with strong impact reporting. |
| 12 | 2011 | Gotebo (Harmon County) | Oklahoma | 6.00 in | Recorded alongside nearby multi-cell severe signatures. |
| 13 | 2015 | Nisland (Potter County) | South Dakota | 6.00 in | Single-cell storm interval with larger hail notes. |
| 14 | 2022 | Almeria (Custer County) | Nebraska | 6.00 in | Recent archive entry used for the city-led ranking. |
| 15 | 2024 | Ada (Pontotoc County) | Oklahoma | 6.00 in | Large hail report with local infrastructure comments. |
Citation
Citation:
HailDrive Storm Archive – "Largest Hailstorms by City"
https://haildrive.com/largest-hailstorms-by-city
Last updated: March 2026
Data source: NOAA NCEI Storm EventsEmbed this chart
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