Storm Lake, IA Hail Storm – June 2026

A severe hail storm tracked through Storm Lake, Iowa, late afternoon on June 17, 2026, producing 3.35-inch stones and a sustained swath of large hail. The event generated 172 NWS alerts and a mix of radar-detected and spotter-verified impacts.

What Happened

Activity began earlier in the day with a series of NWS warning-only alerts and intermittent radar hail returns. The most active period occurred in the late afternoon and early evening. Dual-polarization radar showed increasing hail intensity through the 4 PM hour and into early evening, with the radar-detected peak arriving at 6:44 PM CDT. NWS warning polygons were issued repeatedly along the storm path; the event produced 172 alerts in total.

Field observers recorded multiple large-stone reports along the storm track. At 6:18 PM CDT spotters photographed a jagged, 3-inch hailstone with a ruler and noted corn damage on farmland between Lovington and Arthur. Around 6:20 PM CDT witnesses reported wind-driven, tennis-ball size hail that put holes in siding and broke windows. At 6:51 PM CDT several mPING reports described baseball-size hail, recorded as 2.75 inches. Radar detections during the late-afternoon pulse also included multiple dual-polarization returns above 2 inches, consistent with the large stones reported on the ground.

The sequence shows a long-lived hail-producing cell that intensified over agricultural areas southwest of Storm Lake before moving across the warning area. Spotter activity and social feeds clustered in the Lovington–Arthur corridor during the strongest returns. After the late-evening peak the system weakened and warning activity tapered into the overnight hours.

Damage Assessment

Field reports and radar-derived hail returns indicate concentrated, hard-hitting impacts in the agricultural corridor between Lovington and Arthur and adjacent rural properties. Spotters photographed jagged, 3-inch stones and documented corn foliar and ear damage on farmland near Lovington and Arthur at 6:18 PM CDT. Multiple independent mPING reports near 6:51 PM CDT recorded 2.75-inch stones. Observers at 6:20 PM CDT described wind-driven hail that created holes in vinyl siding and broke house windows.

Those on-farm and residential reports align with dual-polarization radar returns that showed elevated hail sizes across the same corridor during the late-afternoon intensification. Damage reports were most frequent in the southwest-to-northeast axis of the storm path. Reported impacts include: corn crop dings and stripped leaf tissue in fields near Lovington and Arthur; punctured siding and broken glazing on at least three residential reports near the same timeline; and multiple social-media relays that corroborated large stone presence across the warning area. The cluster of spotter-verified 3-inch photos and repeated 2.5–2.75-inch eyewitness reports indicate material damage potential concentrated along the storm track.

Storm Lake, IA Hail Storm – June 2026

NWS WARNING AREAS · 172

What Happened

Damage Assessment

Storm Details

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