Wind gust 70 mph
Waterville Marshall County
“Estimated 60 to 80 mph wind gusts in Waterville. (TOP)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Blue Rapids May 16, 2026
Both radar surfaces caught this storm: NEXRAD logged 0 hail signatures up to 0", and the radar-estimated size reached 0" aloft.
Largest hailstone
0"
≈ pea to penny · radar-estimated size aloft Homes in the hail footprint
0
Ground reports
1
1 windThe 10th most severe storm Blue Rapids 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.
0.2 /10
- Hail size
- 0 /100
- Homes exposed
- 0 /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 Blue Rapids saw the hail — from two instruments
Two instruments, one storm: NEXRAD logs the point signatures it detected overhead, while the estimated-size surface models how large the hail aloft could have grown. Agreement between them is not guaranteed — the gaps are where the model ran ahead of, or behind, the detections.
NEXRAD radar signatures
NEXRAD's hail signatures for this storm: the spots the radar detected from above. A detection overhead is not the same thing as a confirmed stone below.
Max size
0"
Detections
0
Radar-estimated hail size
Radar-estimated maximum hail size across the swath, modeled from radar aloft. It reflects the biggest stone the storm could support, which may differ from what actually fell.
Max size
0"
Where May 16, 2026 sits in Blue Rapids's hail record
This was Blue Rapids's 4th recorded hail day, arriving 23 days after the Apr 23, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 10th of the 11 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Blue Rapids at 0" — radar-estimated size aloft.
The May 16, 2026 convective day was bigger than Blue Rapids: the same system put hail over 711 other tracked cities, 98 of them in Kansas. Nearest: Waterville (5 miles west, up to 0"); Frankfort (11 miles east, up to 0"); Marysville (14 miles north, up to 1").
These maps are stills from Blue Rapids'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.
Wind 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 Waterville — beyond Blue Rapids itself.
What 0" hail means for Blue Rapids roofs
Hail under three-quarters of an inch stays below the National Weather Service severe threshold and rarely breaks shingles outright. But repeated small-hail events accelerate granule loss and shorten roof life — on older roofs, it's still worth a conversation.
Track hail over Blue Rapids on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Blue Rapids 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
Blue Rapids hail history
← All hail in Blue Rapids 11 recorded storm days in Blue Rapids, KS
Other storms in Blue Rapids
Jul 8, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.75"
1
ground report 
Jul 3, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 13, 2026
1.75" Estimated 1.75"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 4, 2026
0.5" Signatures 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
May 29, 2026
May 18, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 1.25"
2
ground reports 
May 17, 2026
1" Signatures 1"
No ground reports filed 
Apr 23, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed 
Apr 9, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 1"
No ground reports filed 
Mar 5, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed
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.