Wind gust 61 mph
1 NE Saint Joseph Airpo Buchanan County
“KSTJ ASOS recorded 61 mph wind gust. (EAX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Wathena May 18, 2026
The radar-estimated size surface caught this storm, reaching 0.5" aloft. NEXRAD logged no point detections over Wathena this day.
Largest hailstone
0.5"
≈ pea to penny · radar-estimated size aloft Homes in the hail footprint
9
Ground reports
1
1 windThe 5th most severe storm Wathena 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.
1.5 /10
- Hail size
- 13 /100
- Homes exposed
- 20 /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 Wathena 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-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
0.5"
Only the radar-estimated size surface resolved for May 18, 2026 — this storm produced no NEXRAD point detections over Wathena, so there is one map to show, not two.
Where May 18, 2026 sits in Wathena's hail record
This was Wathena's 4th recorded hail day, arriving 31 days after the Apr 17, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 5th of the 6 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Wathena at 0.5" — radar-estimated size aloft.
The May 18, 2026 convective day was bigger than Wathena: the same system put hail over 726 other tracked cities, 258 of them in Kansas. Nearest: Savannah (14 miles north, up to 0.75"); Fillmore (15 miles north, up to 0.5"); Robinson (21 miles west, up to 0.5").
These maps are stills from Wathena's May 18, 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 Saint Joseph Airpo — beyond Wathena itself.
What 0.5" hail means for Wathena 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.
What this storm is worth to a roofer
$108K
Potential roof exposure — 9 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage. 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 Wathena on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Wathena storm history — this May 18, 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
Wathena hail history
← All hail in Wathena 6 recorded storm days in Wathena, KS
Other storms in Wathena
Jul 3, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 6, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Apr 17, 2026
2" Signatures 2" Estimated 0.75"
1
ground report 
Mar 31, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Mar 5, 2026
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.