A report of penny-sized hail and a report of golf-ball hail are very different events for a roof. We counted, for each of the 206 cities in our directory, the distinct days since 2014 on which NOAA recorded hail of 1.75 inches or larger, the size the National Weather Service calls golf ball. The numbers belong to each city's county, because that is the unit NOAA reports in.
The median across all 206 cities is 4 golf-ball days in twelve and a half years, and 14 cities have none. At the top of the list, Greeley, Colorado, sits in Weld County with 38 days, roughly 9.5 times the median.
The 15 hardest-hit counties
| County | Cities in our directory | Days 1.75 in+ | Days 1 in+ | Largest stone | Area (sq mi) | Median home built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weld, CO | Greeley | 38 | 118 | 4.25 in | 4,017 | 1984 |
| Sedgwick, KS | Wichita | 29 | 87 | 2.75 in | 1,009 | 1974 |
| Lubbock, TX | Lubbock | 28 | 66 | 4.50 in | 901 | 1983 |
| Comanche, OK | Lawton | 27 | 76 | 4.00 in | 1,084 | 1974 |
| Potter, TX | Amarillo | 27 | 62 | 3.00 in | 922 | 1972 |
| Buffalo, NE | Kearney | 26 | 59 | 4.00 in | 975 | 1981 |
| Lancaster, NE | Lincoln | 25 | 54 | 5.00 in | 846 | 1981 |
| Taylor, TX | Abilene | 25 | 52 | 4.50 in | 919 | 1974 |
| Oklahoma, OK | Edmond | 24 | 75 | 4.00 in | 718 | 1992 |
| Midland, TX | Midland | 23 | 39 | 4.00 in | 902 | 1986 |
| Ector, TX | Odessa | 21 | 51 | 5.00 in | 902 | 1978 |
| Reno, KS | Hutchinson | 21 | 44 | 2.75 in | 1,272 | 1961 |
| Cleveland, OK | Moore, Norman | 20 | 59 | 3.41 in | 558 | 1988 |
| Garfield, OK | Enid | 20 | 44 | 2.75 in | 1,060 | 1970 |
| Pueblo, CO | Pueblo | 19 | 55 | 3.00 in | 2,398 | 1966 |
Cities in the same county share one set of hail numbers. Moore and Norman both sit in Cleveland County, Oklahoma; Killeen and Temple in Bell County, Texas; Bentonville and Rogers in Benton County, Arkansas. The list has 7 Texas counties in its top 20, followed by Oklahoma (4), Colorado (3), Nebraska (3) and Kansas (2).
A county is not a city: reading the area column
Weld County covers 4,017 square miles, about 4.0 times the 1,009 of Sedgwick County, Kansas, which holds Wichita. The two have 38 and 29 golf-ball days. Per square mile, Wichita's county is the busier one: a day counts if a golf-ball stone was reported anywhere in the county, and a larger county gives a storm more room to produce one. The count tells you how often your county sees big hail, not how often it lands on your street.
Reporting adds another wrinkle. Hail only becomes a report when someone sees it and tells the weather service, so counties with more people, spotters and roads record more. A quiet-looking rural county may simply have fewer witnesses.
How often a hail day is a big hail day
The share of 1-inch hail days that also reach golf-ball size differs a lot between places. In Midland County, Texas, 23 of 39 days with 1-inch hail (59%) reached 1.75 inches. In Weld County it is 38 of 118 (32%). For Sedgwick County it is 29 of 87 (33%). Among counties with at least 30 one-inch days, the highest shares are Midland (59%), Pottawattamie (48%) and Taylor (48%).
In the top counties, a hailstorm that reaches 1 inch has a real chance of reaching 1.75 inches, so a roof that took a "minor" 1-inch storm there is worth a look. Only 14 of the 191 counties we cover reach 20 or more golf-ball days; for most places the number is in single digits, and an inspection can reasonably follow a specific storm date rather than a standing schedule. Look up the storm history for your own county on a county hail history page, or check an address with the hail check.
Old roofs in hard-hit places
The last column of the table is the median year homes were built in the city, from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Hutchinson (1961), Pueblo (1966), Enid (1970) have the oldest housing among the top 15 counties. A home's age is not a roof's age, since many have been reroofed, but a house built in the 1960s has had far more time to take hits and to be reroofed more than once. Our guide on roof age and hail covers how age changes the repair-or-replace decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a golf-ball hail day in this data?
A day on which at least one NOAA hail report in the county measured 1.75 inches or more. Several reports on one day count once.
Which city in your directory has the most golf-ball hail days?
Greeley, Colorado, in Weld County, with 38 days from 2014 to June 2026. Wichita, Kansas follows with 29.
Are the numbers for the city or the county?
The county. NOAA files hail reports by county zone, so every city in a county shares the same figures. County size affects the count, which is why the table shows area.
Does more golf-ball hail mean more roof replacements?
Not by itself. A roof's damage depends on its material, age and slope as well as stone size, and an insurer decides what is covered. The count shows exposure, not outcomes.
Where the numbers come from
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database
- NWS Instruction 10-1605, Storm Data Preparation
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey table B25035 (median year built)
Data: NOAA hail reports by county, January 2014 to June 2026; Census ACS 2019 to 2023 5-year estimates for housing. Both processed by PickARoofer. Method and limits: how we build our storm and hail figures.
Sources
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database (ncei.noaa.gov)
- NWS Instruction 10-1605, Storm Data Preparation (weather.gov)
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey table B25035 (median year built) (data.census.gov)
How we write and fund our articles: editorial policy.
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