North Carolina has recorded 9,776 hail events from 1955 to 2024, placing the state in the top 20 nationally (rank #12 of 50). The largest hailstone documented in North Carolina measured 4.5 inches — softball-sized. Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged approximately $112.9M in property and crop damage from North Carolina hail, with the heaviest activity concentrated in May (3,065 events, the state’s busiest hail month) and the most active period (events per year) being 2000-09.
The interactive map below plots every recorded North Carolina 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 North Carolina Hail Storm Map
North Carolina hail by the numbers
| Metric | North Carolina value |
|---|---|
| Total recorded hail events (1955-2024) | 9,776 |
| National rank (event volume) | #12 of 50 states |
| Largest hailstone on record | 4.5″ (softball-sized) |
| Busiest month | May (3,065 events) |
| Most active period (events/year) | 2000-09 |
| Total recorded damage (1996+) | $112.9M |
10 largest hailstones ever recorded in North Carolina
These are the top ten hail reports in North Carolina ranked by hailstone diameter. Sizes are NOAA’s measured-or-estimated diameter at time of report.
| Date | Hail size | Comparison | Reported damage | Casualties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998-05-27 | 4.5″ | softball-sized | — | — |
| 1974-04-03 | 4.5″ | softball-sized | — | — |
| 1985-06-05 | 4.5″ | softball-sized | — | — |
| 1998-05-07 | 4.5″ | softball-sized | — | — |
| 1998-06-03 | 4.5″ | softball-sized | — | — |
| 2000-05-24 | 4.5″ | softball-sized | — | — |
| 2000-05-24 | 4.5″ | softball-sized | — | — |
| 2024-04-20 | 4.5″ | softball-sized | — | — |
| 2003-05-09 | 4.25″ | softball-sized | — | — |
| 2003-05-09 | 4.25″ | softball-sized | — | — |
Costliest North Carolina 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.
| Date | Hail size | Property + crop loss | Casualties |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-05-13 | 2.75″ | $95.0M | — |
| 2017-09-01 | 2.75″ | $10.0M | — |
| 2019-05-13 | 2″ | $5.0M | — |
| 2017-09-01 | 2.75″ | $2.0M | — |
| 2016-05-01 | 2″ | $250K | — |
Hail size distribution in North Carolina
How North Carolina’s 9,776 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).
| Hailstone size | Events | Share of North Carolina total |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1″ (pea to dime) | 4,704 | 48.1% |
| 1.00-1.74″ (quarter) | 3,415 | 34.9% |
| 1.75-1.99″ (golf ball) | 1,361 | 13.9% |
| 2.00-2.74″ (egg / hen-egg) | 181 | 1.9% |
| 2.75-3.99″ (baseball) | 102 | 1.0% |
| 4.00″+ (softball or larger) | 13 | 0.1% |
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.
| Period | Total events | Events per year |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-2000 (1955-99) | 2,885 | 64 |
| 2000-09 | 3,760 | 376 |
| 2010-19 | 2,495 | 250 |
| 2020-24 | 636 | 127 |
When North Carolina’s hail season peaks
North Carolina’s hail activity by calendar month, summed across all years from 1955 to 2024.
| Month | Events |
|---|---|
| January | 38 |
| February | 80 |
| March | 642 |
| April | 1,435 |
| May | 3,065 |
| June | 2,148 |
| July | 1,309 |
| August | 670 |
| September | 282 |
| October | 87 |
| November | 13 |
| December | 7 |
Where North Carolina fits in the US hail picture
North Carolina sits firmly inside what meteorologists call Hail Alley — the high-frequency hail corridor running from northern Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and the eastern Plains. The ingredients are the same wherever the alley runs: warm moist air pulled up from the Gulf of Mexico colliding with cold dry air spilling east off the Rockies, capped by a strong mid-level jet. That setup builds the deep, rotating supercells that loft hailstones high enough to grow to baseball- and softball-size before they fall.
Compare North Carolina’s hail risk with its neighbours: Virginia hail, Tennessee hail, Georgia hail, South Carolina hail.
Frequently asked questions about North Carolina hailstorms
What is the largest hailstone ever recorded in North Carolina?
According to NOAA Storm Prediction Center data, the largest measured hailstone in North Carolina was 4.5 inches in diameter — softball-sized. The map above plots that event along with every other hail report on file for the state.
When does North Carolina get the most hail?
May is North Carolina’s busiest hail month, with 3,065 recorded events — the highest single-month total in the state’s NOAA record. Most North Carolina 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 North Carolina 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 North Carolina — in many states the heaviest activity clusters along specific corridors driven by local terrain, lake effects, or jet-stream positioning.
Is North Carolina’s hail activity getting worse?
Roughly steady or modestly declining in the recent record — 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)
