Tornado Rating unknown
Graettinger Palo Alto County
“Reports of power pole and tree damage in town. Time estimated by radar. (DMX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
/ Storm field report · Emmet
Hail in Estherville · May 17, 2026
NEXRAD logged 5 hail signatures up to 1"; the estimated-size surface reached 0.75" aloft. Open it on the live map to see the swath over the streets.
A tornado was also reported to the National Weather Service during this storm. The ground reports below show where it was filed.
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Peak hail signal 1" ≈ quarter · the largest NEXRAD radar signature
Homes in the hail footprint 166
Ground reports 2 1 wind · 1 tornado
Radar surfaces 2 NEXRAD + estimated size
Convective day · May 17, 2026 · noon–noon UTC
Severity
The 7th most severe storm Estherville has seen in the last 12 months
Composite score · 3.4 / 10
Storm severity score
Overview's storm severity score weighs hailstone size, homes in the footprint, and ground-truth reports.
3.4 /10
- Peak hail signal
- 25 /100
- Homes exposed
- 44 /100
- Ground truth
- 50 /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 Estherville saw the hail — from two instruments
May 17, 2026 · Estherville, IA
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 Surface resolved
Radar signature field 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
1"
Detections
5
Radar-estimated hail size Surface resolved
Estimated size field 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
0.75"
The storm in context
Where May 17, 2026 sits in Estherville's hail record.
This was Estherville's 3rd recorded hail day, arriving 2 days after the May 15, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 7th of the 16 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Estherville at 1" — the largest NEXRAD radar signature.
The May 17, 2026 convective day was bigger than Estherville: the same system put hail over 894 other tracked cities, 139 of them in Iowa. Nearest: Terril (9 miles southwest, up to 1"); Wallingford (9 miles southeast, up to 0.5"); Ringsted (12 miles southeast, up to 0.5").
These maps are stills. In the app this date is one of 16 Estherville 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
2 reports 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.
Tornado reports
1 reportWind reports
1 report Wind gust 82 mph
2 WNW Gruver Emmet County
“ASOS station KEST Estherville Airport. (DMX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Storm 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.
Hail was reported over 27 minutes, from to .
Reports came from Gruver and Graettinger — beyond Estherville itself.
Damage-capable hail signal
What 1" hail means for Estherville 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.
166 homes × $12,000 avg. claim
Potential roof exposure
$2M
Potential roof exposure — 166 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
- Illustrative jobs
- 1 job
- Illustrative work
- ~$15K
Close just 0.5% of the 166 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
May 2028
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.
Names and phones for every home in the footprint: at most $35 on top of the $150 plan.
Estherville hail history
Other storms in Estherville.
16 recorded storm days in Estherville, IA
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Sep 6, 2026
1.25" Estimated 1.25"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Sep 2, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Aug 18, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Aug 9, 2026
0.75" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Aug 8, 2026
1.25" Estimated 1.25"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Aug 3, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Jul 4, 2026
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Jul 2, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Jul 1, 2026
1.5" Signatures 1.5" Estimated 1"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Jun 30, 2026
1.5" Signatures 1.5" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Jun 29, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Jun 27, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
May 25, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
May 15, 2026
2.25" Signatures 2.25" Estimated 1.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Estherville / IA
Apr 13, 2026
2" Signatures 2" Estimated 1.25"
3 ground reports Open report →
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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 Sep 7, 2026.