Storm report · Polk

Hail in Lake Wales Jul 16, 2026

Hit 18 days ago

The radar-estimated size surface caught this storm, reaching 0.5" aloft. NEXRAD logged no point detections over Lake Wales this day.

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Largest hailstone

0.5"

≈ pea to penny · radar-estimated size aloft

Homes in the hail footprint

Ground reports

none filed

Severity

The 20th most severe storm Lake Wales 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.

0.8 /10

Hail size: 13 /100
Homes exposed: 0 /100
Ground truth: 0 /100

Two ways to read the storm

How Lake Wales saw the hail — from two instruments

Each storm gets two readings: the radar signatures NEXRAD recorded as the cells passed overhead, and a modeled estimate of hail size in the air. They are independent surfaces, so a mismatch between them is expected — and worth reading.

Radar-estimated hail-size map of the storm over Lake Wales, FL on Jul 16, 2026 — Radar-estimated hail size over the swath. The model reports the biggest stone the storm could sustain in the air; what actually fell may have been smaller.

Max size 0.5"

Only the radar-estimated size surface resolved for Jul 16, 2026 — this storm produced no NEXRAD point detections over Lake Wales, so there is one map to show, not two.

The storm in context

Where Jul 16, 2026 sits in Lake Wales's hail record

This was Lake Wales's 18th recorded hail day, arriving 6 days after the Jul 10, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 20th of the 20 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Lake Wales at 0.5" — radar-estimated size aloft.

The Jul 16, 2026 convective day was bigger than Lake Wales: the same system put hail over 206 other tracked cities, 11 of them in Florida. Nearest: Kenansville (22 miles east, up to 0.5"); Osprey (82 miles southwest, up to 0.5"); Longboat Key (87 miles west, up to 0.5").

These maps are stills from Lake Wales's Jul 16, 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.

Ground reports

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.

For this storm over Lake Wales, the NWS report log is empty — a common outcome, since ground reports only happen when someone witnesses the hail and takes the time to call it in. The detection record for the date lives in the radar maps above.

Below the severe threshold

What 0.5" hail means for Lake Wales roofs

Hail under three-quarters of an inch stays below the National Weather Service severe threshold and rarely breaks shingles outright. But repeated small-hail events accelerate granule loss and shorten roof life — on older roofs, it's still worth a conversation.

Track hail over Lake Wales on the live map

Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Lake Wales storm history — this Jul 16, 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.

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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

Lake Wales hail history

20 recorded storm days in Lake Wales, FL

← All hail in Lake Wales

Other storms in Lake Wales

Jul 26, 2026