Hail size 1.25"
1 ENE Mount Rushmore Pennington County
“delayed report (UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Hill City Jul 3, 2026
Hit 31 days agoBoth radar surfaces caught this storm: NEXRAD logged 44 hail signatures up to 3", and the radar-estimated size reached 2.25" aloft. At 3" — baseball — this is severe, roof-replacing hail: close to every roof inside the footprint becomes a claim candidate.
Largest hailstone
3"
≈ baseball · the largest NEXRAD radar signature Homes in the hail footprint
427
Ground reports
5
5 hailThe most severe storm Hill City 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
- 75 /100
- Homes exposed
- 53 /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 Hill City 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"
Detections
44
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
2.25"
Where Jul 3, 2026 sits in Hill City's hail record
This was Hill City's 8th recorded hail day, arriving 1 day after the Jul 2, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 1st of the 12 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Hill City at 3" — the largest NEXRAD radar signature.
The Jul 3, 2026 convective day was bigger than Hill City: the same system put hail over 1,885 other tracked cities, 32 of them in South Dakota. Nearest: Silver City (8 miles northeast, up to 1.5"); Rapid City (13 miles east, up to 3"); Deadwood (16 miles northeast, up to 1.5").
These maps are stills from Hill City's Jul 3, 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"
5 SE Deerfield Pennington County
“(UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.25"
Deerfield Pennington County
“Picture submitted via Facebook. (UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.25"
Hill City Pennington County
“Photo submitted via Facebook. (UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
4 NW Hill City Pennington County
“Report and photo submitted via social media. Time estimated based on radar. (UNR)”
— 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
The storm tracked east at roughly 25 mph, based on the timing of ground reports.
Hail was reported over 43 minutes, from to .
Reports came from Mount Rushmore and Deerfield — beyond Hill City itself.
What 3" hail means for Hill City 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
$5.1M
Potential roof exposure — 427 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
Illustrative jobs
2 jobs
Illustrative work
~$30K
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 Hill City on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Hill City storm history — this Jul 3, 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
Hill City hail history
← All hail in Hill City 12 recorded storm days in Hill City, SD
Other storms in Hill City
Jul 31, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed 
Jul 10, 2026
0.75" Signatures 0.75" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Jul 9, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed 
Jul 8, 2026
1.25" Signatures 1.25" Estimated 1.25"
No ground reports filed 
Jul 2, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 26, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 1.25"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 21, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 6, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 1"
No ground reports filed 
Jun 4, 2026
2" Signatures 2" Estimated 1.25"
2
ground reports 
May 30, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 1"
No ground reports filed 
May 3, 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.