Warroad, MN Hail Storm – August 2025

What Happened

A severe hail storm moved through Warroad, Minnesota, on August 11, 2025, with verified hail reaching 1.5 inches by early evening. Four NWS alerts tracked the event from 5:41 PM CDT through 7:55 PM CDT, with the most intense phase unfolding between 7:40 PM and 8:00 PM CDT.

Early radar confidence pointed to 1-inch hail at 5:41 PM CDT. By 7:03 PM CDT, the warning package had shifted to radar and spotter verification. Two later alerts, at 7:47 PM CDT and 7:55 PM CDT, both carried 1.5-inch hail estimates. Field reports lined up with that escalation. Around 7:40 PM CDT, two social-media relayed reports described quarter-sized hail. A delayed 8:00 PM CDT report again placed hail mostly in the pea-sized range, with a few stones up to quarter size.

The report set shows a storm that did not stay uniform across the warning area. Initial hail signals were smaller, then strengthened as the cell matured over the Warroad area. The spotter-verified reports and the later warning updates point to a brief but stronger hail core late in the event.

Damage Assessment

The surface impact appears concentrated in a narrow hail swath rather than a broad zone of uniform large stone coverage. The field reports did not describe widespread structural damage, but they did confirm enough hail size variation to show a live hail core moving through the area. Quarter-sized stones in the 7:40 PM and 8:00 PM reports indicate a level of impact capable of marking vehicles, denting soft metal, and stripping exposed vegetation in the most affected spots.

Because the strongest hail confirmation came late in the warning cycle, the most useful damage checks are likely to be near the storm core path rather than across the full warning area. The reports suggest a mixed field pattern: smaller hail at the edges, larger stones in the tighter corridor where the storm briefly strengthened. That is consistent with localized roof, siding, and vehicle exposure instead of evenly distributed loss.

For contractors, the first priority is to sort by exposure, not by the city name alone. Warroad sits close enough to surrounding rural roads and open parcels that hail may have been uneven across short distances. A few blocks or a few miles can separate minor cosmetic marks from measurable denting. Look first at parked vehicles, ridge caps, north- and west-facing elevations, and any property that sits in the direct path of the late-evening core.

What Contractors Should Know

This event deserves a targeted field pass in and around Warroad, with attention to the late-evening hail path on August 11. The strongest verified size, 1.5 inches, appeared only after the storm had already produced earlier 1-inch signals. That timing matters for canvass planning. The heaviest impacts were likely brief and concentrated, not spread evenly across the whole warning area.