Mer Rouge, LA Hail Storm – April 2026

A severe hail-producing storm moved through Mer Rouge, Louisiana on April 28, 2026, producing stones up to 3 inches and a multilayer hail signature on radar. The event generated dozens of NWS alerts and spotter reports late afternoon into the overnight period.

What Happened

The storm sequence began with NWS warning-only alerts in the early afternoon and continued through the next day, totaling 53 NWS alerts issued for the Mer Rouge metro area between April 28 and April 29. Early watches and warnings at 1:01 PM CDT and 1:17 PM CDT flagged 1-inch hail potential. Dual-polarization NEXRAD hail detection first registered stronger returns during the late afternoon. Dual-polarization radar flagged significant hail signatures at 5:21 PM CDT and again at 6:40 PM CDT, with additional radar-detected hail reports through the evening and into the overnight period.

Spotter reports anchored the surface picture. At 5:20 PM CDT (22:20 UTC) spotters near Vaughn submitted photographs showing multiple very large stones and corrected an earlier report from 2 W Vaughan. Later, social media photographs circulated around 6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC) showing half-dollar-sized hail, and additional images at 6:49 PM CDT (23:49 UTC) showed dime-to-nickel sized stones. Radar-detected hail alerts continued after midnight and into the following morning, indicating the storm produced intermittent hail cores along a track crossing the Mer Rouge area.

Damage Assessment

Field reports and radar returns indicate a concentrated impact west of Vaughn and along the immediate storm path through the Mer Rouge metro. Spotter-supplied photographs from 5:20 PM CDT show multiple large hail stones collected near Vaughn. Social media images between 6:45 PM CDT and 6:49 PM CDT documented a range of stone sizes across adjacent neighborhoods.

NWS warning-only alerts and separate radar-detected hail signatures align with the locations of the photographic reports. Follow-up ground inspections in the Vaughn vicinity should expect mixed impact intensities: areas with photographic evidence of large stones and nearby blocks that received smaller, more uniformly sized hail. No county-wide damage summary is available in the local storm reports. Damage reports from this event are concentrated to the specific coordinates referenced by the spotter submissions and by the radar-identified hail cores.

What Contractors Should Know

Start inspections at properties nearest the 5:20 PM CDT spotter location near Vaughn and proceed along the radar-indicated track through Mer Rouge. Prioritize roof coverings and soft metals on structures where photographs show large stones. For roofs with granular loss, document hit patterns and measure dent diameters where metal flashing, gutters, HVAC units, and gutters are exposed.

Photographic evidence shows variability in stone size across short distances. Tile and shingle systems should be evaluated for isolated impact points as well as for clustered pitting. Vehicles photographed in residential areas may show mixed damage; photograph all dents and record locations relative to the spotter-verified photographs and the NEXRAD hail detections.

Mer Rouge, LA Hail Storm – April 2026

NWS WARNING AREAS · 53

What Happened

Damage Assessment

What Contractors Should Know

Storm Details

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