Hail size 1"
2 N Buck Grove Crawford County
“(DMX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Dow City Apr 15, 2026
The radar-estimated size surface caught this storm, reaching 3" aloft. NEXRAD logged no point detections over Dow City this day. At 3" — baseball — this is severe, roof-replacing hail: close to every roof inside the footprint becomes a claim candidate.
Largest hailstone
3"
≈ baseball · radar-estimated size aloft Homes in the hail footprint
5,851
Ground reports
6
6 hailThe most severe storm Dow City 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.
7.9 /10
- Hail size
- 75 /100
- Homes exposed
- 75 /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 Dow City saw the hail — from two instruments
The maps here read the same storm from two angles — point detections from NEXRAD, and modeled hail size aloft. Where the two disagree is informative: it marks where estimated size outran the signatures, or trailed them.
Radar-estimated hail size
The modeled maximum hail size across the swath, derived from radar aloft — the largest stone the storm could have supported, which is not necessarily what reached the ground.
Max size
3"
Only the radar-estimated size surface resolved for Apr 15, 2026 — this storm produced no NEXRAD point detections over Dow City, so there is one map to show, not two.
Where Apr 15, 2026 sits in Dow City's hail record
This was Dow City's 1st recorded hail day — the first hail day in our records for the city. By severity it ranks 1st of the 5 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Dow City at 3" — radar-estimated size aloft.
The Apr 15, 2026 convective day was bigger than Dow City: the same system put hail over 425 other tracked cities, 127 of them in Iowa. Nearest: Denison (7 miles north, up to 2.5"); Charter Oak (9 miles northwest, up to 1"); Dunlap (10 miles southwest, up to 3").
These maps are stills from Dow City's Apr 15, 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
6 reports Hail size 1.5"
2 N Buck Grove Crawford County
“(DMX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.75"
3 E Buck Grove Crawford County
“Between Ping Ball and Golf Ball size. (DMX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2"
2 E Buck Grove Crawford County
“Time estimated from radar. (DMX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.5"
1 WNW Denison Crawford County
“Social media picture of measured hail near the Denison Hospital. Time estimated from radar. (DMX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.5"
Dow City Crawford County
“(DMX)”
— 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 280 minutes, from to .
Reports came from Buck Grove and Denison — beyond Dow City itself.
What 3" hail means for Dow City 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
$70M
Potential roof exposure — 5,851 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
Illustrative jobs
29 jobs
Illustrative work
~$435K
Claims from this storm can typically be filed until around April 2028 — the window to reach these homeowners while it's still open. Deadlines vary by policy and state.
Track hail over Dow City on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Dow City storm history — this Apr 15, 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
Dow City hail history
← All hail in Dow City 5 recorded storm days in Dow City, IA
Other storms in Dow City
Jul 8, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 1"
No ground reports filed 
Jul 4, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
May 17, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Apr 23, 2026
2.5" Signatures 2.5" Estimated 1.5"
1
ground report
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 3, 2026.