Hail size 2.75"
Saratoga Howard County
“Time estimated via radar. (ARX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Lime Springs Apr 14, 2026
The radar-estimated size surface caught this storm, reaching 2" aloft. NEXRAD logged no point detections over Lime Springs this day. At 2" — tennis ball — this is severe, roof-replacing hail: close to every roof inside the footprint becomes a claim candidate.
Largest hailstone
2"
≈ tennis ball · radar-estimated size aloft Homes in the hail footprint
2,063
Ground reports
1
1 hailThe 2nd most severe storm Lime Springs 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.
4.9 /10
- Hail size
- 50 /100
- Homes exposed
- 66 /100
- Ground truth
- 17 /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 Lime Springs 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
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
2"
Only the radar-estimated size surface resolved for Apr 14, 2026 — this storm produced no NEXRAD point detections over Lime Springs, so there is one map to show, not two.
Where Apr 14, 2026 sits in Lime Springs's hail record
This was Lime Springs's 1st recorded hail day — the first hail day in our records for the city. By severity it ranks 2nd of the 9 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Lime Springs at 2" — radar-estimated size aloft.
The Apr 14, 2026 convective day was bigger than Lime Springs: the same system put hail over 476 other tracked cities, 143 of them in Iowa. Nearest: Elma (7 miles south, up to 2"); Cresco (9 miles southeast, up to 1"); Alta Vista (15 miles south, up to 1.75").
These maps are stills from Lime Springs's Apr 14, 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
1 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
Reports came from Saratoga — beyond Lime Springs itself.
What 2" hail means for Lime Springs 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
$25M
Potential roof exposure — 2,063 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
Illustrative jobs
10 jobs
Illustrative work
~$150K
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 Lime Springs on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Lime Springs storm history — this Apr 14, 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
Lime Springs hail history
← All hail in Lime Springs 9 recorded storm days in Lime Springs, IA
Other storms in Lime Springs
Jul 8, 2026
3" Signatures 3" Estimated 1.5"
No ground reports filed 
Jul 2, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed 
Jul 1, 2026
1.25" Signatures 1.25" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 30, 2026
Jun 10, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
May 17, 2026
1" Signatures 1"
No ground reports filed 
May 15, 2026
Apr 17, 2026
0.75" Signatures 0.75" Estimated 0.5"
3
ground reports
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.