Hail size 1"
1 S Ingalls Park Will County
“Report from mPING. (LOT)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Joliet Mar 31, 2026
Both radar surfaces caught this storm: NEXRAD logged 17 hail signatures up to 2.5", and the radar-estimated size reached 1.25" aloft. At 2.5" — baseball — this is severe, roof-replacing hail: close to every roof inside the footprint becomes a claim candidate.
Largest hailstone
2.5"
≈ baseball · the largest NEXRAD radar signature Homes in the hail footprint
13,357
Ground reports
5
5 hailThe most severe storm Joliet 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.
7.1 /10
- Hail size
- 63 /100
- Homes exposed
- 83 /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 Joliet 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.
NEXRAD radar signatures
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
2.5"
Detections
17
Radar-estimated hail size
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
1.25"
Where Mar 31, 2026 sits in Joliet's hail record
This was Joliet's 1st recorded hail day — the first hail day in our records for the city. By severity it ranks 1st of the 4 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Joliet at 2.5" — the largest NEXRAD radar signature.
The Mar 31, 2026 convective day was bigger than Joliet: the same system put hail over 522 other tracked cities, 114 of them in Illinois. Nearest: New Lenox (5 miles east, up to 2"); Shorewood (5 miles west, up to 2.5"); Mokena (10 miles east, up to 1.75").
These maps are stills from Joliet's Mar 31, 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 1.75"
Rockdale Will County
“Photo shared on social media showing several large hailstones at Moen Avenue and Midland Avenue in Rockdale. The largest hailstones were approximately golf ball size. T (LOT)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
2 E Shorewood Will County
“Report from mPING. (LOT)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.5"
1 S Preston Heights Will County
“Photo shared of approximately ping pong ball size hail at Route 53 and Laraway Road. Time estimated from radar. (LOT)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
Preston Heights Will County
“Photo shared of hail in Preston Heights. The largest hailstones were approximately quarter size. Time estimated from radar. (LOT)”
— 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 13 minutes, from to .
Reports came from Ingalls Park, Rockdale, Shorewood, and Preston Heights — beyond Joliet itself.
What 2.5" hail means for Joliet 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
$160M
Potential roof exposure — 13,357 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
Illustrative jobs
67 jobs
Illustrative work
~$1M
Claims from this storm can typically be filed until around March 2028 — the window to reach these homeowners while it's still open. Deadlines vary by policy and state.
Track hail over Joliet on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Joliet storm history — this Mar 31, 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
Joliet hail history
← All hail in Joliet 4 recorded storm days in Joliet, IL
Other storms in Joliet
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.