Hail size 1"
5 WSW Chapman Merrick County
“(GID)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Grand Island Jul 8, 2026
Hit 26 days agoBoth radar surfaces caught this storm: NEXRAD logged 27 hail signatures up to 3.25", and the radar-estimated size reached 1.75" aloft. At 3.25" — baseball — this is severe, roof-replacing hail: close to every roof inside the footprint becomes a claim candidate.
Largest hailstone
3.25"
≈ baseball · the largest NEXRAD radar signature Homes in the hail footprint
155
Ground reports
1
1 hailThe 2nd most severe storm Grand Island 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.
6.2 /10
- Hail size
- 81 /100
- Homes exposed
- 44 /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 Grand Island 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
3.25"
Detections
27
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
1.75"
Where Jul 8, 2026 sits in Grand Island's hail record
This was Grand Island's 7th recorded hail day, arriving 18 days after the Jun 20, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 2nd of the 8 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Grand Island at 3.25" — the largest NEXRAD radar signature.
The Jul 8, 2026 convective day was bigger than Grand Island: the same system put hail over 908 other tracked cities, 155 of them in Nebraska. Nearest: Chapman (6 miles northeast, up to 3.25"); Saint Libory (7 miles north, up to 1.25"); Phillips (9 miles southeast, up to 1.75").
These maps are stills from Grand Island's Jul 8, 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
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 Chapman — beyond Grand Island itself.
What 3.25" hail means for Grand Island 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
$1.9M
Potential roof exposure — 155 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
Illustrative jobs
1 job
Illustrative work
~$15K
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 Grand Island on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Grand Island storm history — this Jul 8, 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
Grand Island hail history
← All hail in Grand Island 8 recorded storm days in Grand Island, NE
Other storms in Grand Island
Jul 30, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 20, 2026
0.75" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 10, 2026
1.5" Estimated 1.5"
3
ground reports 
Jun 5, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 1"
No ground reports filed 
May 30, 2026
May 16, 2026
2.5" Signatures 2.5" Estimated 1.75"
4
ground reports 
Apr 10, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
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.