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Storms That Hit

Guide · Hail

Hail Size Chart: From Penny to Grapefruit, With 400,000 Reports

The object sizes forecasters use for hail, how often each size is reported, and the largest stones in the Storm Prediction Center record.

Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated

Many hail reports do not come from a ruler. A spotter, a trained observer or a member of the public compares the stones with a familiar object — a penny, a quarter, a golf ball — and the National Weather Service converts that to inches. The Storm Prediction Center publishes the conversion table, and asks for measurement rather than estimation where possible. SPC defines severe hail as hail 1 inch or more in diameter.

SPC's hail report file holds 413,656 reports from 1955 through 2025, after exact repeats are removed. 413,654 of them have a usable size. The table puts every object in SPC's table next to the number of reports of exactly that size.

SPC hail size table with the number of reports of each size
SizeObjectReports of exactly this sizeShare of sized reports
0.50 inmarble980.0%
0.75 inpenny104,15125.2%
0.88 innickel49,17611.9%
1.00 inquarter122,25529.6%
1.25 inhalf dollar19,2744.7%
1.50 inping pong ball19,3524.7%
1.75 ingolf ball68,54016.6%
2.00 inhen egg10,6272.6%
2.50 intennis ball5,4491.3%
2.75 inbaseball8,1752.0%
3.00 intea cup2,2780.6%
4.00 insoftball7960.2%
4.50 ingrapefruit7120.2%

Object names from the SPC table. Reports at sizes between the standard ones are not shown in this table.

Reports cluster at the object sizes

99% of all sized reports are at one of the thirteen standard sizes, which is what object-based estimation produces: a stone between a quarter and a half dollar tends to be reported as one or the other. The most common size is 1.00 inch (quarter), with 122,255 reports, followed by 0.75 inch (penny) and 1.75 inch (golf ball).

The other 2,771 reports (0.7%) give sizes between the standard ones, such as 1.13 or 2.25 inches, which suggests a measurement rather than a comparison with an object. Hail of 1 inch or more makes up 259,470 reports (63%); 2 inches or more, the size of a hen egg, 29,799 (7.2%); 4 inches or more, softball size and up, 2,032.

The threshold matters for what gets reported. The National Weather Service raised its severe-hail criterion from 3/4 inch to 1 inch in 2010. From 2000 to 2009, 52% of reports were under 1 inch (or had no usable size); from 2011 to 2025, 23%. Smaller hail still falls; the change is in what gets reported.

The largest stones in the record

The National Weather Service office in Aberdeen documented the record hailstone from Vivian, South Dakota, which fell on July 23, 2010: 8.0 inches in diameter, 18.625 inches around, weighing 1.9375 pounds. It replaced the diameter record of 7.0 inches from Aurora, Nebraska (June 22, 2003) and the weight record of 1.67 pounds from Coffeyville, Kansas (September 3, 1970). The Vivian stone is in the SPC file as an 8-inch report. The file has 6 reports of 8 inches in all, the others older; the table lists the twenty largest, each with the nearest city on this site.

The largest hail reports in the SPC file
SizeDateStateNearest cityDistance
8 inJuly 23, 2010South DakotaFort Pierre, SD29 mi
8 inApril 26, 1971OklahomaEnid, OK9 mi
8 inSeptember 3, 1970KansasCoffeyville, KS4 mi
8 inJune 19, 1970ArkansasCalico Rock, AR6 mi
8 inJuly 21, 1969North DakotaDevils Lake, ND25 mi
8 inMay 31, 1958IowaOelwein, IA2 mi
7.75 inSeptember 15, 2010KansasGoddard, KS6 mi
7.5 inApril 14, 1965TexasGraham, TX1 mi
7.02 inJune 2, 2024TexasTulia, TX13 mi
7 inJune 22, 2003NebraskaAurora, NE2 mi
7 inApril 30, 1961OklahomaEl Reno, OK3 mi
7 inSeptember 27, 1959IowaEldridge, IA5 mi
6.88 inAugust 21, 2007South DakotaWagner, SD5 mi
6.42 inApril 28, 2021TexasHondo, TX3 mi
6.13 inAugust 21, 2007South DakotaWagner, SD2 mi
6.12 inMay 9, 2024TexasJohnson City, TX1 mi
6 inMay 25, 2025TexasFloydada, TX28 mi
6 inJuly 31, 2024MinnesotaMorris, MN16 mi
6 inJune 2, 2024TexasLockney, TX26 mi
6 inMarch 14, 2024OklahomaAda, OK2 mi

Sizes over 8 inches in the file are treated as unknown on this site; the US record is 8.0 inches.

When hail is reported

Hail reports peak in May, with 98,246 reports across all years (24%). April through July together hold 74% of all reports, and December through February 3.0%. The months follow the season of strong thunderstorms over the central US, where the states with the most reports are.

Where large hail is reported

The states with the most reports of 2 inches or more are listed below. Reports follow people: a town or a highway produces reports that open range does not, so these counts describe the record, not the hail that fell.

States with the most reports of 2-inch hail or larger
StateReports of 2 in or moreAll reportsLargest
Texas6,27553,4947.5 in
Kansas3,16539,1948 in
Oklahoma2,69630,2888 in
Nebraska2,48724,6857 in
South Dakota1,49616,8508 in
Colorado1,37115,1095.25 in
Missouri1,22919,8566 in
Iowa1,12515,5068 in
Minnesota1,08415,2246 in
North Dakota8779,8928 in
Arkansas72412,0778 in
Illinois62911,8636 in

Each city page on this site counts the hail reports within 10 miles of it since 1955, with the largest size and the most recent report, and the methodology page explains how a report is matched to a city.

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