Wakita, OK Hail Storm – August 2026

A severe hail storm tracked through Wakita, Oklahoma on August 7, 2026, producing 2.24-inch stones and multiple radar-detected hail cores from before sunrise into the evening. The event generated 30 NWS alerts between 4:03 AM CDT and 7:51 PM CDT covering the Wakita metro.

What Happened

The first alerts appeared at 4:03 AM CDT, when dual-polarization radar indicated a hail core near the Wakita area. Radar-derived hail detections continued through mid-morning, with clusters of both radar-detected and NWS warning-only alerts occurring between 4:00 AM and noon. Spotters contributed early ground reports in neighboring Augusta just after 8:00 AM CDT. An mPING submission at 8:07 AM CDT logged 1-inch hail, and spotters submitted multiple photos at 8:08 AM CDT showing large stones collected at the north end of Augusta.

Activity resumed through the afternoon. Dual-polarization radar flagged elevated hail signatures in the 2:00–3:00 PM CDT window, including a radar-derived 2.06-inch hail signature at 2:52 PM CDT. A mix of NWS warning-only alerts and radar-detected alerts continued into late afternoon. The final NWS alert associated with the event was issued at 7:51 PM CDT.

The alert stream comprised 30 discrete NWS alerts. Many alerts were based on dual-polarization, NEXRAD hail detection while others were issued as NWS warning-only polygons without a radar-derived size in the alert text. Field reports from the Augusta area remain the primary on-the-ground evidence for surface hail during the early morning pass.

Damage Assessment

Photographs submitted by spotters in the north end of Augusta document substantial hail accumulations on driveways and lawns. Multiple images taken around 8:08 AM CDT show rounded stones collected in piles and on paved surfaces. An mPING report at 8:07 AM CDT and a brief, quarter-sized hail report at 8:08 AM CDT indicate variability in stone size across nearby points.

Radar signatures during the mid-afternoon passage align with zones that passed over the Wakita metro and nearby communities. Those radar-detected cores correlate with the times and locations of the NWS alert stream and indicate separate periods of heavier hail potential later in the day. Surface evidence from the Augusta photo submissions remains the clearest on-the-ground confirmation for this event.

Reported observations in the ground-truth set do not include formalized damage assessments such as insured-loss estimates or municipal damage tallies. Contractors and field teams should use the spotter photographs and the radar-derived hail track to locate where surface impacts were observed when prioritizing inspections.

What Contractors Should Know

Prioritize inspections in the north end of Augusta first. Spotter photographs timestamped at 8:08 AM CDT show collected stones at the surface and provide documented locations to begin canvasses. Log GPS coordinates and photograph damage in the same frame as the submitted spotter images to tie field evidence to the reported collection points.