Hail is not evenly distributed. Across the thousands of counties we track in our NOAA Storm Events dataset (2014 to June 2026: 12 full years plus 2026 to June), a small number of counties accumulate far more recorded events than their neighbors. The table below shows the 10 counties with the highest total hail event counts in our database, along with each county's state, FIPS code, event total, and the largest single hailstone recorded there.
Top 10 Hail-Heaviest Counties
| Rank | County | State | FIPS | Events | Max Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | El Paso County | CO | 08041 | 869 | 4.00" |
| 2 | Pennington County | SD | 46103 | 745 | 4.50" |
| 3 | Tarrant County | TX | 48439 | 541 | 5.00" |
| 4 | Weld County | CO | 08123 | 480 | 4.25" |
| 5 | Laramie County | WY | 56021 | 466 | 4.25" |
| 6 | Denton County | TX | 48121 | 429 | 5.90" |
| 7 | Oklahoma County | OK | 40109 | 427 | 4.00" |
| 8 | Yuma County | CO | 08125 | 404 | 5.25" |
| 9 | Sedgwick County | KS | 20173 | 382 | 2.75" |
| 10 | Cleveland County | OK | 40027 | 365 | 3.41" |
What This List Reveals
Colorado dominates the top of the list with three entries: El Paso County at 869 events, Weld County at 480, and Yuma County at 404. South Dakota places one county, Pennington (745), and Wyoming one, Laramie (466). Texas places two counties (Tarrant and Denton), Oklahoma two (Oklahoma and Cleveland), and Sedgwick County in Kansas rounds out the ten. Collin County, Texas, is 11th with 344 events, just outside the table.
The presence of Colorado at the top surprises some people. Colorado's Front Range and eastern plains sit directly under the hail-producing thunderstorm tracks that develop along the Rocky Mountain foothills and move east. El Paso County's 869 events over 2014 to June 2026 represent a different kind of hail market than Texas: the event frequency is persistently high.
Frequency vs. Severity
Event count and maximum hail size tell different parts of the story. Sedgwick County, Kansas (Wichita) has 382 events but a maximum of only 2.75 inches, still damaging, but well below the 5.90 inches recorded in Denton County, Texas. A contractor assessing market opportunity should look at both figures: frequency determines how often the phone rings, while severity determines the average job size.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the hail-heaviest county in the database?
El Paso County, Colorado (El Paso County, CO) leads with 869 recorded hail events from 2014 to June 2026, with a maximum hail size of 4.00 inches.
Why does Colorado appear at the top of a hail list more than Texas?
Colorado's Front Range counties experience very high hail event frequency because thunderstorm tracks developing along the Rockies pass repeatedly over the same geography. Texas has a much larger land area and a higher total event count statewide (15,822 events), but individual Colorado counties accumulate events at a high per-county rate.
What does FIPS code mean in hail data?
FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) codes are standardized numeric identifiers assigned to every US county. They are used in NOAA storm data and our database to precisely identify which county an event occurred in, avoiding ambiguity from shared county names across states.
How recent is this data?
The dataset covers 2014 through June 2026, twelve full calendar years of hail records plus January to June 2026, from the NOAA Storm Events Database (hail of 3/4 inch and larger is entered, so this is not limited to 1.0 inch or larger).
Data source and county codes
- U.S. Census Bureau: FIPS / ANSI code lists
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database
- NWS Instruction 10-1605, Storm Data Preparation (hail reporting rules, size guide)
Data: hail records for the ten highest-count U.S. counties from the NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database (2014 to June 2026), counted by PickARoofer per county and year. Loaded into our database 2026-10-06; links last rechecked 2026-09-24.
Method and limits of the hail counts, including why they are not limited to 1.0 inch hail: how we build our storm and hail figures.
Hail counts in this post come from the full NOAA hail table: every county in 50 states and DC, 2014 to June 2026, loaded October 6, 2026. The two sets give different totals because they cover different counties. Dataset versions.
Sources
- NOAA Storm Events (ncei.noaa.gov)
- FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) codes (census.gov)
- NWS Instruction 10-1605, Storm Data Preparation (hail reporting rules, size guide) (weather.gov)
How we write and fund our articles: editorial policy.
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