Wind gust 65 mph
3 NNW Galt Wright County
“Measured from personal weather station. (DMX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
/ Storm field report · Franklin
Hail in Dows · Jul 20, 2026
The estimated-size surface reached 1.25" aloft; NEXRAD logged no point detections over Dows that day. Open it on the live map to see the swath over the streets.
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Peak hail signal 1.25" ≈ half-dollar · radar-estimated size aloft
Homes in the hail footprint 1,640
Ground reports 1 1 wind
Radar surfaces 1 Estimated size only
Convective day · Jul 20, 2026 · noon–noon UTC
Severity
The most severe storm Dows has seen in the last 12 months
Composite score · 3.7 / 10
Storm severity score
Overview's storm severity score weighs hailstone size, homes in the footprint, and ground-truth reports.
3.7 /10
- Peak hail signal
- 31 /100
- Homes exposed
- 64 /100
- Ground truth
- 17 /100
Largest radar-indicated size — a signal of damage potential, not confirmation.
How many homes sit inside the storm's footprint.
Independent storm reports filed with the NWS.
Evidence / storm surfaces
How Dows saw the hail — from two instruments
Jul 20, 2026 · Dows, IA
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 Surface resolved
Estimated size field 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
1.25"
Only the radar-estimated size surface resolved for Jul 20, 2026 — this storm produced no NEXRAD point detections over Dows, so there is one map to show, not two.
The storm in context
Where Jul 20, 2026 sits in Dows's hail record.
This was Dows's 4th recorded hail day, arriving 12 days after the Jul 8, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 1st of the 5 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Dows at 1.25" — radar-estimated size aloft.
The Jul 20, 2026 convective day was bigger than Dows: the same system put hail over 553 other tracked cities, 178 of them in Iowa. Nearest: Alden (6 miles southeast, up to 0.5"); Blairsburg (11 miles west, up to 2"); Iowa Falls (11 miles east, up to 1").
These maps are stills. In the app this date is one of 5 Dows storm dates on a live map — both surfaces, the reports, and a replay — and the same map is where you draw the swath. This page rebuilds nightly.
Ground reports
What people on the ground reported
1 report filed with the NWS
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.
Wind reports
1 reportStorm forensics
How the storm moved
Timing and place names from NOAA ground reports
Read from the arrival times and locations of the NOAA ground reports, not a radar-measured storm track.
Reports came from Galt — beyond Dows itself.
Damage-capable hail signal
What 1.25" hail means for Dows roofs.
Quarter-size and larger hail can bruise asphalt mats, remove granules, and dent exposed soft metal. The mapped footprint identifies an inspection priority area — it does not identify which individual roofs, if any, sustained damage.
Radar reading · not confirmed damage
Roofing exposure
What this storm is worth to a roofer.
1,640 homes × $12,000 avg. claim
Potential roof exposure
$20M
Potential roof exposure — 1,640 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
- Illustrative jobs
- 8 jobs
- Illustrative work
- ~$120K
Close just 0.5% of the 1,640 homes in this footprint at the average $15,000 roof job. Illustrative math, not a projection — your results depend on your outreach and how the market responds.
Claim window
July 2028
Claims from this storm can typically be filed until around July 2028 — the window to reach these homeowners while it's still open. Deadlines vary by policy and state.
Names and phones for every home in the footprint: at most $344 on top of the $150 plan.
Estimated-size surface Storm date Dows / IA
Aug 10, 2026
0.75" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Dows / IA
Jul 8, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Dows / IA
Jul 1, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Dows / IA
Jun 28, 2026
0.75" Signatures 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
The next storm won’t wait for you.
Set your territory and alerts today. When hail hits, use Overview to choose your streets and get moving.
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For iPhone. Android coming soon.
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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 tells you where to look. Only an inspection confirms damage at an address. Last updated Aug 11, 2026.