Hail size 1"
1 SW Fort Smith Sebastian County
“Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). (TSA)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Fort Smith May 8, 2026
Both radar surfaces caught this storm: NEXRAD logged 0 hail signatures up to 2.5", and the radar-estimated size reached 1.5" aloft. At 2.5" — baseball — this is severe, roof-replacing hail: close to every roof inside the footprint becomes a claim candidate.
Largest hailstone
2.5"
≈ baseball · the largest NEXRAD radar signature Homes in the hail footprint
45,280
Ground reports
7
7 hailThe most severe storm Fort Smith has seen in the last 12 months
Storm severity score
Overview's storm severity score weighs hailstone size, homes in the footprint, and ground-truth reports.
7.6 /10
- Hail size
- 63 /100
- Homes exposed
- 93 /100
- Ground truth
- 100 /100
Largest hailstone — the top predictor of roof damage.
How many homes sit inside the storm's footprint.
Independent storm reports filed with the NWS.
How Fort Smith saw the hail — from two instruments
We map this storm two ways: the NEXRAD radar signatures the storm produced overhead, and the radar-estimated size of the hail in the air. The two surfaces don’t have to match — where they diverge is where estimated size aloft ran ahead of, or behind, what the signatures caught.
NEXRAD radar signatures
NEXRAD radar signatures — the point detections the storm produced overhead. A signature is where the radar saw hail, not a confirmed stone on the ground.
Max size
2.5"
Detections
0
Radar-estimated hail size
Maximum hail size as estimated from radar aloft. Treat it as the storm's ceiling — the largest supportable stone — rather than a ground measurement.
Max size
1.5"
Where May 8, 2026 sits in Fort Smith's hail record
This was Fort Smith's 4th recorded hail day, arriving 14 days after the Apr 24, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 1st of the 5 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Fort Smith at 2.5" — the largest NEXRAD radar signature.
The May 8, 2026 convective day was bigger than Fort Smith: the same system put hail over 378 other tracked cities, 14 of them in Arkansas. Nearest: Van Buren (7 miles north, up to 2.5"); Muldrow (12 miles west, up to 4"); Alma (13 miles northeast, up to 1.75").
These maps are stills from Fort Smith's May 8, 2026 storm. In the Overview app the same surfaces are live — radar updating in real time, radar-estimated hail size as it forms, and NWS spotter reports pinned where they're filed — with a radar replay you can scrub back over any past day.
What people on the ground reported
These are storm reports filed with the National Weather Service and released through the NOAA Storm Prediction Center — public-domain observations from spotters, the public, and NWS surveys. We quote each one exactly as filed.
Hail reports
7 reports Hail size 1.25"
1 W Barling Sebastian County
“Damage to vegetation reported. Time revised from radar estimate. (TSA)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
1 N Barling Sebastian County
“Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). (TSA)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
1 N Van Buren Crawford County
“Relayed via spotter network. (TSA)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
2 SW Van Buren Sebastian County
“Relayed via spotter network. (TSA)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.25"
1 S Fort Smith Sebastian County
“(TSA)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.75"
1 E Fort Smith Sebastian County
“(TSA)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Storm forensics
Read from the arrival times and locations of the NOAA ground reports,
not a radar-measured storm track.
How the storm moved
Hail was reported over 13 minutes, from to .
Reports came from Barling and Van Buren — beyond Fort Smith itself.
What 2.5" hail means for Fort Smith roofs
Two-inch-plus hail punctures shingles, breaks skylights and windows, and dents anything soft. In the core of a footprint like this, close to every roof is a candidate for an insurance claim. Speed decides who writes those jobs.
What this storm is worth to a roofer
$543M
Potential roof exposure — 45,280 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
Illustrative jobs
226 jobs
Illustrative work
~$3.4M
Claims from this storm can typically be filed until around May 2028 — the window to reach these homeowners while it's still open. Deadlines vary by policy and state.
Track hail over Fort Smith on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Fort Smith storm history — this May 8, 2026 storm included — sits underneath. When you're ready, draw this storm's footprint and pull highly accurate homeowner contact information for every address inside it.
Highly accurate contact information starting at $0.23 per address — every contact included. Digital leads cost $15–$40. Start with a 7-day free trial — no credit card required. See pricing
Fort Smith hail history
← All hail in Fort Smith 5 recorded storm days in Fort Smith, AR
Other storms in Fort Smith
A storm day here is a convective day — it runs from noon to noon
UTC, so late-night hail is grouped with the afternoon storm that
spawned it rather than split across two calendar dates. Ground
reports are public-domain observations from the NOAA Storm
Prediction Center. Radar surfaces are detections and estimates,
not confirmed damage. Last updated Aug 2, 2026.