Hail size 1.5"
3 E Maple Bluff Dane County
“Report from mPING: Ping Pong Ball (1.50 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Madison Apr 14, 2026
The radar-estimated size surface caught this storm, reaching 2.5" aloft. NEXRAD logged no point detections over Madison this day. 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 · radar-estimated size aloft Homes in the hail footprint
32,206
Ground reports
24
24 hailThe most severe storm Madison 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.
7.5 /10
- Hail size
- 63 /100
- Homes exposed
- 90 /100
- Ground truth
- 100 /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 Madison 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.
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
2.5"
Only the radar-estimated size surface resolved for Apr 14, 2026 — this storm produced no NEXRAD point detections over Madison, so there is one map to show, not two.
Where Apr 14, 2026 sits in Madison's hail record
This was Madison's 1st recorded hail day — the first hail day in our records for the city. By severity it ranks 1st of the 2 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Madison at 2.5" — radar-estimated size aloft.
The Apr 14, 2026 convective day was bigger than Madison: the same system put hail over 476 other tracked cities, 94 of them in Wisconsin. Nearest: Cottage Grove (5 miles east, up to 2.5"); Deforest (7 miles north, up to 2.25"); Deerfield (10 miles east, up to 2").
These maps are stills from Madison's Apr 14, 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
24 reports Hail size 2"
3 N Monona Dane County
“Report from mPING: Hen Egg (2.00 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2"
2 NE Monona Dane County
“Report from mPING: Hen Egg (2.00 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2"
1 S Maple Bluff Dane County
“Report from mPING: Hen Egg (2.00 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 3"
1 ESE Maple Bluff Dane County
“(MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
1 E Maple Bluff Dane County
“Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 3"
1 E Maple Bluff Dane County
“Report from mPING: Tea Cup (3.00 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
1 SE Maple Bluff Dane County
“(MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2.75"
1 SE Maple Bluff Dane County
“(MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
3 E Maple Bluff Dane County
“Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 3.5"
3 E Maple Bluff Dane County
“Corrects previous hail report from 3 E Maple Bluff. Trained spotter reports measured hail stones as large as 3.5 inches in diameter. (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2.25"
3 E Maple Bluff Dane County
“Report from mPING: Hen Egg+ (2.25 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2.5"
3 E Maple Bluff Dane County
“(MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2.75"
2 NE Maple Bluff Dane County
“Report from mPING: Baseball (2.75 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2.75"
2 NE Maple Bluff Dane County
“Trained spotter estimates baseball sized hail. (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
2 N Maple Bluff Dane County
“Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2.75"
3 NE Monona Dane County
“Trained spotter reports baseball-sized hail. Multiple vehicles with broken glass. (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.75"
3 NE Maple Bluff Dane County
“Report from mPING: Golf Ball (1.75 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2.5"
3 W Cottage Grove Dane County
“Report from mPING: Tennis Ball (2.50 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 4"
4 E Maple Bluff Dane County
“Trained spotter measures softball sized hail near Maple Bluff. (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1.75"
4 W Cottage Grove Dane County
“Report from mPING: Golf Ball (1.75 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2.75"
4 W Cottage Grove Dane County
“Report from mPING: Baseball (2.75 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 2.25"
4 W Cottage Grove Dane County
“Report from mPING: Hen Egg+ (2.25 in.). (MKX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail size 1"
4 W Cottage Grove Dane County
“Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). (MKX)”
— 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
Hail was reported over 149 minutes, from to .
Reports came from Maple Bluff, Monona, and Cottage Grove — beyond Madison itself.
What 2.5" hail means for Madison 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
$386M
Potential roof exposure — 32,206 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
Illustrative jobs
161 jobs
Illustrative work
~$2.4M
Claims from this storm can typically be filed until around April 2028 — the window to reach these homeowners while it's still open. Deadlines vary by policy and state.
Track hail over Madison on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Madison storm history — this Apr 14, 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
Madison hail history
← All hail in Madison 2 recorded storm days in Madison, WI
Other storms in Madison
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 2, 2026.