Hail size 1.25"
2 SW Sissonville Kanawha County
“Report from mPING: Half Dollar (1.25 in.). (RLX)”
— NOAA / SPC storm report
Hail in Charleston May 20, 2026
The radar-estimated size surface caught this storm, reaching 0.75" aloft. NEXRAD logged no point detections over Charleston this day.
Largest hailstone
0.75"
≈ penny to nickel · radar-estimated size aloft Homes in the hail footprint
3,313
Ground reports
2
2 hailThe most severe storm Charleston 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.
3.4 /10
- Hail size
- 19 /100
- Homes exposed
- 70 /100
- Ground truth
- 33 /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 Charleston 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
Map image is still rendering for this surface.
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
0.75"
Only the radar-estimated size surface resolved for May 20, 2026 — this storm produced no NEXRAD point detections over Charleston, so there is one map to show, not two.
Where May 20, 2026 sits in Charleston's hail record
This was Charleston's 1st recorded hail day — the first hail day in our records for the city. By severity it ranks 1st of the 3 storms we have logged here. Radar put the day's largest stone over Charleston at 0.75" — radar-estimated size aloft.
The May 20, 2026 convective day was bigger than Charleston: the same system put hail over 109 other tracked cities, 9 of them in West Virginia. Nearest: Elkview (22 miles north, up to 1.25"); Clendenin (26 miles northeast, up to 1.25"); Procious (30 miles northeast, up to 1.25").
These maps are stills from Charleston's May 20, 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
2 reports Hail size 1"
1 N Sissonville Kanawha County
“Social media video showing quarter size hail. (RLX)”
— 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
Reports came from Sissonville — beyond Charleston itself.
What 0.75" hail means for Charleston roofs
Hail this size sits right at the edge of the National Weather Service severe threshold. Newer roofs usually shrug it off, but aging or already-worn shingles can bruise, and soft metals — vents, flashing, gutters — often show the first dents.
What this storm is worth to a roofer
$40M
Potential roof exposure — 3,313 homes × the ~$12,000 industry-average hail roof claim. Exposure, not confirmed damage.
Illustrative jobs
17 jobs
Illustrative work
~$255K
Claims from this storm can typically be filed until around May 2028 — the window to reach these homeowners while it's still open. Deadlines vary by policy and state.
Track hail over Charleston on the live map
Radar updates in real time, spotter reports appear on the map as they're filed, and the full Charleston storm history — this May 20, 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
Charleston hail history
← All hail in Charleston 3 recorded storm days in Charleston, WV
Other storms in Charleston
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.