Hail in Byron · May 15, 2026
Convective day · May 15, 2026 · noon–noon UTC
Severity
The 7th most severe storm Byron has seen in the last 12 months
Overview's storm severity score weighs hailstone size, homes in the footprint, and ground-truth reports.
- Peak hail signal
- 0 /100
- Homes exposed
- 0 /100
- Ground truth
- 0 /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 Byron saw the hail — from two instruments
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.
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.
Only the NEXRAD radar-signature surface resolved for May 15, 2026 — the estimated-size swath had no hail signal to model for this storm, so there is one map to show, not two.
The storm in context
Where May 15, 2026 sits in Byron's hail record.
This was Byron's 6th recorded hail day, arriving 28 days after the Apr 17, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 7th of the 8 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Byron at 0" — radar-estimated size aloft.
The May 15, 2026 convective day was bigger than Byron: the same system put hail over 444 other tracked cities, 20 of them in Illinois. Nearest: Belvidere (23 miles east, up to 1"); Janesville (35 miles northeast, up to 0"); Union (41 miles east, up to 0").
These maps are stills. In the app this date is one of 8 Byron 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
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.
For this storm over Byron, the NWS report log is empty — a common outcome, since ground reports only happen when someone witnesses the hail and takes the time to call it in. The detection record for the date lives in the radar maps above.
Below the severe threshold
What 0" hail means for Byron roofs.
Radar signals under three-quarters of an inch stay below the National Weather Service severe threshold and generally indicate lower roof risk. Older or already-worn materials can still show effects, but radar alone cannot determine whether a specific roof was damaged.
Radar reading · not confirmed damage
Estimated-size surface Jul 3, 2026
1"
Estimated-size surface Jun 24, 2026
0.75"
Estimated-size surface Apr 17, 2026
Estimated-size surface Apr 15, 2026
0.5"
NEXRAD surface Apr 13, 2026
0.75"
NEXRAD surface Mar 31, 2026
1"
NEXRAD surface Mar 30, 2026
1"The next storm won’t wait for you.
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