Storm report · Pennington

Hail in Rapid City Jul 3, 2026

Hit 31 days ago

Both radar surfaces caught this storm: NEXRAD logged 25 hail signatures up to 3", and the radar-estimated size reached 1.75" aloft. At 3" — baseball — this is severe, roof-replacing hail: close to every roof inside the footprint becomes a claim candidate.

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Largest hailstone

≈ baseball · the largest NEXRAD radar signature

Homes in the hail footprint

1,397

Ground reports

2 hail

Severity

The most severe storm Rapid 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.

6.6 /10

Hail size: 75 /100
Homes exposed: 63 /100
Ground truth: 33 /100

Two ways to read the storm

How Rapid City 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.

NEXRAD radar-signature map of the hail storm over Rapid City, SD on Jul 3, 2026 — NEXRAD radar signatures — the point detections the storm produced overhead. A signature is where the radar saw hail, not a confirmed stone on the ground.

Max size 3" Detections 25

Radar-estimated hail-size map of the storm over Rapid City, SD on Jul 3, 2026 — 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 1.75"

The storm in context

Where Jul 3, 2026 sits in Rapid City's hail record

This was Rapid City's 11th recorded hail day, arriving 1 day after the Jul 2, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 1st of the 17 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Rapid City at 3" — the largest NEXRAD radar signature.

The Jul 3, 2026 convective day was bigger than Rapid City: the same system put hail over 1,885 other tracked cities, 32 of them in South Dakota. Nearest: Silver City (5 miles west, up to 1.5"); Deadwood (7 miles north, up to 1.5"); Hill City (13 miles west, up to 3").

These maps are stills from Rapid 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.

Ground reports

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

2 reports

Hail size 1.25"

1 ENE Mount Rushmore Pennington County

11:00 PM UTC

“delayed report (UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report

Hail size 1.25"

Hill City Pennington County

10:45 PM UTC

“Photo submitted via Facebook. (UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report

Storm forensics

How the storm moved

Hail was reported over 15 minutes, from 10:45 PM UTC to 11:00 PM UTC .

Reports came from Mount Rushmore and Hill City — beyond Rapid City itself.

Read from the arrival times and locations of the NOAA ground reports, not a radar-measured storm track.

Severe, roof-replacing hail

What 3" hail means for Rapid 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

$17M

Potential roof exposure — 1,397 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.

Illustrative jobs

7 jobs

Illustrative work

~$105K

Close just 0.5% of the 1,397 homes in this footprint at the average $15,000 roof job. Illustrative math, not a projection — your results depend on your outreach and how the market responds.

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 Rapid City on the live map

Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Rapid 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.

Reach 1,397 affected homes → Book a 15-min demo

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

Rapid City hail history

17 recorded storm days in Rapid City, SD

← All hail in Rapid City

Other storms in Rapid City

Jul 30, 2026