Towanda, PA Hail Storm – August 2026

A hail storm tracked through Towanda, Pennsylvania on August 12, 2026, producing 3-inch stones and generating 19 NWS alerts between late afternoon and after midnight.

What Happened

The event began in the late afternoon and persisted into the overnight hours. NWS warning polygons first appeared at 5:08 PM EDT and continued in a series of 19 alerts through 12:27 AM EDT. Early warnings were largely NWS warning only notifications. Dual-polarization radar began registering hail detections in the 6:20s PM window and supplied repeated radar-derived hail signals later in the evening.

Field observers recorded a concentrated cluster of radar-estimated impacts in the 7:30–7:51 PM EDT period. Spotter-submitted notes labeled several of those timestamps as radar estimated times, and one spotter entry at 7:51 PM EDT specifically corrected a previous hail report near 1 S Binghamton. Multiple spotter-verified reports between 7:35 PM and 7:51 PM EDT show consistent radar-estimated hail occurrences along the same corridor that passed through the Towanda metro.

NWS warning-only alerts and radar-detected alerts alternated along the storm’s progression. Earlier alerts at 5:08 PM, 5:37 PM and 6:11 PM EDT carried NWS warning-only attribution. Radar-detected hail signals were present by 6:24 PM EDT and reappeared in subsequent alerts after 6:30 PM EDT. Later radar-derived detections at 7:29 PM and 8:11 PM EDT aligned with the cluster of spotter reports in the 7:30s PM timeframe, indicating a period of concentrated activity in the Towanda-Binghamton corridor.

Damage Assessment

Spotter reports and radar estimates indicate concentrated surface impact in the late evening along the storm track through the Towanda metro and the area immediately north of Binghamton. A spotter-corrected report at 7:51 PM EDT referenced 1 S Binghamton. Multiple radar-estimated observations were logged between 7:35 PM and 7:49 PM EDT in that same corridor. The temporal clustering of those reports points to localized intense impact where the radar echo and spotter observations overlapped.

Field reports do not list widespread structural collapse or community-scale outages. Observers characterized impacts as discrete surface strikes at specific times and locations. The pattern of repeated radar-estimated signatures over a short interval suggests concentrated damage patches rather than a uniformly affected countywide area. Survey teams and claims adjusters should prioritize on-the-ground verification in and immediately around the points logged by spotters near Towanda and the corrected 1 S Binghamton report.

Recorded NWS warning polygons provide the broader warning area for property owners and responders. Radar-derived detections and spotter submissions identify where hail reached the surface within that area. Use the spotter timestamps and the radar overlap window around 7:30–7:51 PM EDT to guide initial field canvasses.