Hail size 1.75"
1 WSW Red Oak Montgomery County
“Emergency manager reports golf ball size hail just outside of Red Oak to the southwest. (OAX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Red Oak May 16, 2026
Both radar surfaces caught this storm: NEXRAD logged 31 hail signatures up to 3.75", and the radar-estimated size reached 2.25" aloft. At 3.75" — baseball — this is severe, roof-replacing hail: close to every roof inside the footprint becomes a claim candidate.
Largest hailstone
3.75"
≈ baseball · the largest NEXRAD radar signature Homes in the hail footprint
1,378
Ground reports
5
5 hailThe most severe storm Red Oak 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.
8.4 /10
- Hail size
- 94 /100
- Homes exposed
- 63 /100
- Ground truth
- 83 /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 Red Oak 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.
NEXRAD radar signatures
Where NEXRAD flagged hail as the storm passed — point signatures from the radar, which indicate hail overhead rather than confirm what landed.
Max size
3.75"
Detections
31
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
2.25"
Where May 16, 2026 sits in Red Oak's hail record
This was Red Oak's 5th recorded hail day, arriving 1 day after the May 15, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 1st of the 14 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Red Oak at 3.75" — the largest NEXRAD radar signature.
The May 16, 2026 convective day was bigger than Red Oak: the same system put hail over 711 other tracked cities, 64 of them in Iowa. Nearest: Emerson (9 miles northwest, up to 2.5"); Shenandoah (9 miles southwest, up to 1"); Villisca (13 miles east, up to 2.5").
These maps are stills from Red Oak's May 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.
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
5 reports Hail size 2.75"
3 S Red Oak Montgomery County
“Report from mPING: Baseball (2.75 in.). (OAX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
Red Oak Montgomery County
“Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). (OAX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
Red Oak Montgomery County
“(OAX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2"
3 ESE Red Oak Montgomery County
“Storm chaser shared photos of measured two inch hailstones. (OAX)”
— 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 12 minutes, from to .
What 3.75" hail means for Red Oak 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
$17M
Potential roof exposure — 1,378 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
Illustrative jobs
7 jobs
Illustrative work
~$105K
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.
Track hail over Red Oak on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Red Oak storm history — this May 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.
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
Red Oak hail history
← All hail in Red Oak 14 recorded storm days in Red Oak, IA
Other storms in Red Oak
Jul 2, 2026
0.5" Signatures 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 30, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 13, 2026
1" Estimated 1"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 10, 2026
1.75" Estimated 1.75"
8
ground reports 
Jun 6, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 1"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 5, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.75"
1
ground report 
May 31, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 1"
No ground reports filed 
May 18, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
May 17, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
May 15, 2026
2.25" Signatures 2.25" Estimated 1"
2
ground reports 
Apr 23, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Apr 14, 2026
0.75" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed 
Mar 6, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 1"
2
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.