March 10-16, 2026 storm activity digest for contractors

Week in Review

March 8 to March 11, 2026 produced 15 detected hail events across Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, and Kentucky. The week was heavy on severe hail. Four events reached 4 inches or larger, and several 3-inch hail swaths covered large residential and commercial footprints.

Texas and the Midwest carried most of the activity. The largest verified hail reached 4.5 inches in Utopia, TX, on March 11. Lake Village, IN, and Leakey, TX, each reached 4 inches on March 10. Roma, TX, and Rio Grande City, TX, each reached 4 inches on March 8 with radar and spotter verification.

Address counts were broad in several corridors. Kansas City, KS, led the week with 167,475 addresses inside the warning area tied to 3-inch hail. St. Anne, IL, followed with two separate 4-inch and 3-inch hail detections covering 31,005 and 30,924 addresses. Bourbonnais, IL, added 28,646 addresses with 3-inch hail, and Wheatfield, IN, reached 22,461.

Notable Events

Utopia, TX, was the largest hail event of the week. On March 11, dual-polarization radar detected 4.5-inch hail with 4,577 addresses in the warning area. That placed a concentrated high-end hail swath across southwest Texas.

Leakey, TX, saw 4-inch hail on March 10 with 6,462 addresses. Brackettville, TX, followed the same day with 3-inch hail and 19,217 addresses. Roma, TX, posted 4-inch hail on March 8 with radar and spotter verification, plus 5,698 addresses. Rio Grande City, TX, also reached 4 inches on March 8 and carried 13,212 addresses in the warning area. A second Rio Grande City detection showed 3-inch hail and 8,698 addresses.

In the Midwest, St. Anne, IL, stood out for volume. The March 10 storm produced 4-inch hail across 31,005 addresses. A separate 3-inch hail area in the same town covered 30,924 addresses. Bourbonnais, IL, added 28,646 addresses with 3-inch hail. Those three Illinois events placed a broad hail corridor across the Chicago south suburban market.

Kansas City, KS, recorded 3-inch hail on March 10 with 167,475 addresses in the warning area. That was the largest address count of the week. For contractors, the footprint extended far beyond a single neighborhood scale event. The hail potential intersected a dense metro base with both residential and light commercial exposure.

Lake Village, IN, reached 4 inches on March 10 with 1,606 addresses. Lowell, IN, posted 3-inch hail with 5,517 addresses, and Wheatfield, IN, reached 3 inches with 22,461 addresses on March 11. Mount Pleasant, IA, rounded out the week with 2.75-inch hail and 7,921 addresses on March 10.

Regional Patterns

Texas delivered the highest hail sizes. Utopia, Leakey, Roma, Rio Grande City, and Brackettville made the state the center of the week’s upper-end hail reports. The Texas events were split between the Rio Grande region and the Hill Country corridor, with more than one town showing 4-inch or greater hail.

Illinois was the busiest state for repeated hail exposure. St. Anne posted two separate hail areas on March 10, and Bourbonnais added another sizable event the same day. The clustered timing suggests a multi-county deployment zone rather than isolated roof checks. Roofing and exterior crews covering the I-57 corridor should expect overlapping canvass areas where one storm produced more than one repair pocket.

Indiana also saw multiple hits in one stretch. Lake Village, Lowell, and Wheatfield all recorded hail on March 10 or March 11. The address counts varied sharply, from 1,606 in Lake Village to 22,461 in Wheatfield. That spread points to different storm footprints, but the timing supports a broader northwestern Indiana canvass window.

Kansas City, KS, was the week’s most address-heavy event. Even at 3-inch size, the warning area included a very large property base. Urban hail events often create uneven damage patterns across roof age, slope, and construction type, but the footprint alone was large enough to support multiple crew assignments.

What Contractors Should Watch

Start with Texas. Utopia, Leakey, Roma, Rio Grande City, and Brackettville should remain high-priority canvass areas. The 4-inch and 4.5-inch hail reports were concentrated enough to justify rapid exterior inspection work, especially on older composition roofs, soft metal systems, gutters, and vehicle-facing assets.

Treat the Illinois cluster as a second priority zone. St. Anne, Bourbonnais, and the surrounding south suburban market saw repeated hail on March 10. A 4-inch event and two 3-inch events in the same corridor can create a stacked lead pool. Contractors with crews in the Chicago market should work the south side and southwest suburbs in tight passes.

Kansas City, KS, should remain on the board for residential and small commercial follow-up. The 167,475-address warning area can support long-duration canvassing, especially where tree cover or roof complexity delayed early visual checks.

Indiana deserves a separate deployment plan. Lake Village, Lowell, and Wheatfield were not a single cluster, but the date range and hail sizes justify coordinated routing across northwest Indiana. The 22,461-address Wheatfield event is the strongest lead target in that group.

March is still early season across the Midwest and Southern Plains. The week showed a mix of high-end hail and broad warning areas, with several events verified by both radar and spotters. The coming week should stay on watch for renewed severe storm setup across the same central corridor if moisture and instability rebuild over the Plains and lower Midwest.