California has recorded 875 hail events from 1955 to 2024, placing the state below the most active hail-belt states (rank #40 of 50). The largest hailstone documented in California measured 3 inches — baseball-sized. Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged approximately $21.9M in property and crop damage from California hail, with the heaviest activity concentrated in March (156 events, the state’s busiest hail month) and the most active period (events per year) being 2010-19.

The interactive map below plots every recorded California hail report from the NOAA Storm Prediction Center archive. Use the Min Size buttons to focus on damaging hail (1.75″ golf-ball and larger), or filter by Era to see how activity has shifted over the decades.

Interactive California Hail Storm Map

California hail by the numbers

10 largest hailstones ever recorded in California

These are the top ten hail reports in California ranked by hailstone diameter. Sizes are NOAA’s measured-or-estimated diameter at time of report.

Costliest California hailstorms since 1996

Property loss totals come from the National Weather Service’s Storm Events Database. Pre-1996 figures are excluded because the dataset used categorical loss codes rather than dollar amounts before that year.

Hail size distribution in California

How California’s 875 hail events break down by hailstone size. Hail under 1″ is treated as marginally severe; the National Weather Service issues severe-thunderstorm warnings starting at 1″ (quarter size).

Activity by decade

Recorded hail events have risen across most US states over the decades — partly because of more severe weather, but largely because of vastly improved spotter networks, mobile reporting, and dual-polarisation radar coverage that came online widely after 2010. The events-per-year column normalises the 45-year pre-2000 bucket against the modern 10-year and 5-year periods so the trend is comparable.

When California’s hail season peaks

California’s hail activity by calendar month, summed across all years from 1955 to 2024.

Where California fits in the US hail picture

California lies well outside the high-frequency US Hail Alley. The state’s hail activity is comparatively rare and tends to be driven by isolated thunderstorms, frontal passages, or, in a few western states, by orographic lift over the mountains. When California does see severe hail, it’s often a single high-impact event rather than a season-long pattern of weekly storms.

Compare California’s hail risk with its neighbours: Oregon hail, Nevada hail, Arizona hail.

Frequently asked questions about California hailstorms

What is the largest hailstone ever recorded in California?

According to NOAA Storm Prediction Center data, the largest measured hailstone in California was 3 inches in diameter — baseball-sized. The map above plots that event along with every other hail report on file for the state.

When does California get the most hail?

March is California’s busiest hail month, with 156 recorded events — the highest single-month total in the state’s NOAA record. Most California hail falls in the spring and early-summer convective season; you can see the full month-by-month breakdown in the seasonality table above.

Where in California does hail occur most often?

Use the interactive map above to identify the highest-density hail corridors. Pan, zoom and click any point to see the date, size and reported damage for that event. Patterns vary across California — in many states the heaviest activity clusters along specific corridors driven by local terrain, lake effects, or jet-stream positioning.

Is California’s hail activity getting worse?

Higher in recent decades than in the 2000s — but interpret the trend with care. The recorded count has risen across nearly every state because spotter networks, mobile reporting apps, and dual-polarisation radar all expanded dramatically after about 2010. So a rising count partly reflects better detection rather than purely worse weather. The size-distribution and damage tables above are slightly less affected by this reporting bias.

How is hail size measured?

Reports use estimated maximum hailstone diameter in inches, usually compared to common objects: 0.75″ (penny), 1″ (quarter, the severe threshold), 1.75″ (golf ball), 2″ (egg), 2.75″ (baseball), 4″ (softball). The largest verified US hailstone, recorded in Vivian, South Dakota in 2010, measured 8 inches across.

Data sources and limitations

All hail event data on this page comes from the NOAA Storm Prediction Center SVRGIS dataset, accessed via an Esri feature service. The dataset contains over 400,000 individual US hail reports from 1955 to 2024. Property and crop loss values are recorded in actual dollar amounts from 1996 onward (categorical codes were used pre-1996, so loss totals on this page exclude those earlier years). Hailstone sizes are reported as measured-or-estimated maximum diameters; report density is influenced by population, road networks, and the modernisation of spotter networks over time.

Related Mapscaping resources: US Hailstorms map (national hub) · NOAA Storm Reports map (tornadoes, hail and wind)