Wind gust 61 mph
1 ESE Bowleys Quarters ANZ531 County
“Wind gusts of up to 53 knots (61 MPH) were measured by the Seneca Creek WeatherFlow sensor (XSNC) between 6:00 and 6:10 PM. (LWX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Essex Jul 28, 2026
Hit 6 days agoBoth radar surfaces caught this storm: NEXRAD logged 22 hail signatures up to 2.5", and the radar-estimated size reached 1" 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
7,662
Ground reports
1
1 windThe most severe storm Essex 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.
5.9 /10
- Hail size
- 63 /100
- Homes exposed
- 78 /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 Essex 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
2.5"
Detections
22
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
1"
Where Jul 28, 2026 sits in Essex's hail record
This was Essex's 2nd recorded hail day, arriving 24 days after the Jul 4, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 1st of the 2 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Essex at 2.5" — the largest NEXRAD radar signature.
The Jul 28, 2026 convective day was bigger than Essex: the same system put hail over 686 other tracked cities, 55 of them in Maryland. Nearest: Rosedale (5 miles west, up to 2.75"); White Marsh (7 miles north, up to 1"); Baltimore (8 miles west, up to 2.75").
These maps are stills from Essex's Jul 28, 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 Bowleys Quarters — beyond Essex itself.
What 2.5" hail means for Essex 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
$92M
Potential roof exposure — 7,662 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
Illustrative jobs
38 jobs
Illustrative work
~$570K
Claims from this storm can typically be filed until around July 2028 — the window to reach these homeowners while it's still open. Deadlines vary by policy and state.
Track hail over Essex on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Essex storm history — this Jul 28, 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
Essex hail history
← All hail in Essex 2 recorded storm days in Essex, MD
Other storms in Essex
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 1, 2026.