Hail size 1"
4 SSW Dwtn Rapid City Pennington County
“Report sent to media livestream then relayed via Slack. (UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
/ Storm field report · Pennington
Hail in Rapid City · Aug 18, 2026
Hit 25 days ago
The estimated-size surface reached 1.5" aloft; NEXRAD logged no point detections over Rapid City that day. Open it on the live map to see the swath over the streets.
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Peak hail signal 1.5" ≈ ping-pong ball · radar-estimated size aloft
Homes in the hail footprint 6,725
Ground reports 6 6 hail
Radar surfaces 1 Estimated size only
Convective day · Aug 18, 2026 · noon–noon UTC
Severity
The 3rd most severe storm Rapid City has seen in the last 12 months
Composite score · 5.7 / 10
Storm severity score
Overview's storm severity score weighs hailstone size, homes in the footprint, and ground-truth reports.
5.7 /10
- Peak hail signal
- 38 /100
- Homes exposed
- 77 /100
- Ground truth
- 100 /100
Largest radar-indicated size — a signal of damage potential, not confirmation.
How many homes sit inside the storm's footprint.
Independent storm reports filed with the NWS.
Evidence / storm surfaces
How Rapid City saw the hail — from two instruments
Aug 18, 2026 · Rapid City, SD
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.
Radar-estimated hail size Surface resolved
Estimated size field 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
1.5"
Only the radar-estimated size surface resolved for Aug 18, 2026 — this storm produced no NEXRAD point detections over Rapid City, so there is one map to show, not two.
The storm in context
Where Aug 18, 2026 sits in Rapid City's hail record.
This was Rapid City's 22nd recorded hail day, arriving 2 days after the Aug 16, 2026 storm. By severity it ranks 3rd of the 26 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Rapid City at 1.5" — radar-estimated size aloft.
The Aug 18, 2026 convective day was bigger than Rapid City: the same system put hail over 309 other tracked cities, 8 of them in South Dakota. Nearest: Deadwood (5 miles west, up to 2"); Hermosa (20 miles southeast, up to 1.25"); White River (139 miles east, up to 0.5").
These maps are stills. In the app this date is one of 26 Rapid City storm dates on a live map — both surfaces, the reports, and a replay — and the same map is where you draw the swath. This page rebuilds nightly.
Ground reports
What people on the ground reported
6 reports filed with the NWS
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
6 reports Hail size 1.5"
5 SSW Dwtn Rapid City Pennington County
“Report sent to media livestream then relayed via Slack. (UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.25"
4 S Dwtn Rapid City Pennington County
“(UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.5"
5 SW Dwtn Rapid City Pennington County
“Report sent to media livestream then relayed via Slack (UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
5 NE Rockerville Pennington County
“Report sent to media livestream then relayed via Slack. (UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.5"
4 WSW Dwtn Rapid City Pennington County
“Time estimated via radar. (UNR)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Storm forensics
How the storm moved
Timing and place names from NOAA ground reports
Read from the arrival times and locations of the NOAA ground reports, not a radar-measured storm track.
Reports came from Dwtn Rapid City and Rockerville — beyond Rapid City itself.
High damage potential
What 1.5" hail means for Rapid City roofs.
Hail around an inch and a half is capable of cracking shingles, stripping granules, and denting gutters, vents, and siding. Risk is usually greatest near the strongest radar signal, but property-level damage still requires an on-site inspection.
Radar reading · not confirmed damage
Roofing exposure
What this storm is worth to a roofer.
6,725 homes × $12,000 avg. claim
Potential roof exposure
$81M
Potential roof exposure — 6,725 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
- Illustrative jobs
- 34 jobs
- Illustrative work
- ~$510K
Close just 0.5% of the 6,725 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.
Claim window
August 2028
Claims from this storm can typically be filed until around August 2028 — the window to reach these homeowners while it's still open. Deadlines vary by policy and state.
Names and phones for every home in the footprint: at most $1,412 on top of the $150 plan.
Rapid City hail history
Other storms in Rapid City.
26 recorded storm days in Rapid City, SD
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Sep 6, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Aug 27, 2026
0.75" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Aug 24, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Aug 23, 2026
2.25" Estimated 2.25"
2 ground reports Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Aug 16, 2026
1.25" Estimated 1.25"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Aug 11, 2026
4" Estimated 4"
18 ground reports Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Aug 10, 2026
2" Estimated 2"
2 ground reports Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Aug 9, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jul 30, 2026
0.75" Signatures 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jul 29, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jul 27, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jul 9, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jul 8, 2026
1.25" Signatures 1.25" Estimated 1"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jul 7, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jul 3, 2026
3" Signatures 3" Estimated 1.75"
2 ground reports Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jul 2, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 1.5"
1 ground report Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jun 26, 2026
1" Signatures 1" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jun 22, 2026
1" Estimated 1"
4 ground reports Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jun 7, 2026
0.75" Signatures 0.5" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jun 6, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
Jun 4, 2026
1.25" Signatures 1.25" Estimated 0.75"
1 ground report Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
May 31, 2026
1.75" Signatures 1.75" Estimated 1.25"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
May 30, 2026
1.5" Signatures 1.5" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
May 21, 2026
0.75" Estimated 0.75"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Estimated-size surface Storm date Rapid City / SD
May 3, 2026
0.5" Estimated 0.5"
No ground reports filed Open report →
Take your next area into the field.
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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 tells you where to look. Only an inspection confirms damage at an address. Last updated Sep 7, 2026.