Hail in Des Moines on Friday, July 9, 2021
The Storm Prediction Center logged 30 hail reports in Des Moines on Friday, July 9, 2021, between 1:28 pm and 2:49 pm CDT, in 3 of the metro's 6 counties. The largest was 3.25 inches at 2 ENE Windsor Heights (Polk County) at 2:15 pm. NOAA radar flagged 98 hail signatures inside the metro that day: 21 rated a 100% chance of hail and 23 with a maximum expected size of 1 inch or more.
Where hail was reported
Reports came from 13 places in Dallas, Polk and Warren counties, named as the National Weather Service described them.
- Johnston 6 reports, up to 2.75 in
- Windsor Heights 5 reports, up to 3.25 in
- Des Moines 4 reports, up to 1.75 in
- Urbandale 4 reports, up to 2.75 in
- Woodward 3 reports, up to 3.00 in
- Ankeny 1 report, up to 1.75 in
- Carlisle 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Clive 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Des Moines Int Airp 1 report, up to 1.75 in
- Granger 1 report, up to 1.50 in
- Grimes 1 report, up to 1.75 in
- Indianola 1 report, up to 1.50 in
- Polk City 1 report, up to 2.00 in
Every hail report logged that day
Times are Central Daylight Time. Sizes are in inches, as reported. The comment is the National Weather Service's text as published in the Storm Prediction Center's daily log.
| Time | Size | Place | County | NWS comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:28 pm | 2.75 | Woodward | Dallas | (DMX) |
| 1:29 pm | 3.00 | Woodward | Dallas | REPORT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. (DMX) |
| 1:38 pm | 1.75 | 3 S Woodward | Dallas | (DMX) |
| 1:55 pm | 1.75 | Grimes | Polk | REPORT FROM MPING: GOLF BALL (1.75 IN.). (DMX) |
| 1:56 pm | 1.75 | 2 NE Johnston | Polk | REPORT FROM MPING: GOLF BALL (1.75 IN.). (DMX) |
| 1:58 pm | 1.00 | 1 NE Johnston | Polk | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). (DMX) |
| 1:59 pm | 1.75 | 1 W Johnston | Polk | (DMX) |
| 2:00 pm | 1.75 | 1 S Johnston | Polk | (DMX) |
| 2:01 pm | 2.75 | 1 SE Urbandale | Polk | REPORT FROM MPING: BASEBALL (2.75 IN.). (DMX) |
| 2:01 pm | 1.25 | 2 E Urbandale | Polk | REPORT FROM MPING: HALF DOLLAR (1.25 IN.). (DMX) |
| 2:01 pm | 2.00 | 2 ENE Urbandale | Polk | (DMX) |
| 2:01 pm | 1.50 | 1 NE Johnston | Polk | REPORT FROM MPING: PING PONG BALL (1.50 IN.). (DMX) |
| 2:01 pm | 2.00 | 3 S Polk City | Polk | GOLF BALL TO EGG SIZE AT THE NWS OFFICE IN JOHNSTON. (DMX) |
| 2:01 pm | 1.50 | 1 SE Granger | Polk | REPORT FROM MPING: PING PONG BALL (1.50 IN.). (DMX) |
| 2:02 pm | 1.00 | 2 NE Windsor Heights | Polk | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). (DMX) |
| 2:02 pm | 1.00 | 2 NW Clive | Polk | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). (DMX) |
| 2:03 pm | 2.75 | Johnston | Polk | COURTESY WHOTV. (DMX) |
| 2:05 pm | 1.75 | 1 NNE Windsor Heights | Polk | (DMX) |
| 2:06 pm | 1.75 | 1 SE Windsor Heights | Polk | LARGEST HAIL WAS GOLF BALL SIZED AROUND 206PM. (DMX) |
| 2:08 pm | 1.75 | 3 W Ankeny | Polk | HALF DOLLAR TO GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL. (DMX) |
| 2:11 pm | 1.75 | 1 ESE Urbandale | Polk | (DMX) |
| 2:14 pm | 1.50 | 3 ENE Windsor Heights | Polk | THREE-QUARTERS TO AS LARGE AS PING PONG SIZED HAIL. (DMX) |
| 2:15 pm | 1.50 | 2 WNW Des Moines | Polk | MOST HAIL WAS BETWEEN DIME AND NICKEL SIZE AT 31ST AND INGERSOLL AVENUE... BUT LARGEST ESTIMATED WAS 1.5 INCHES. HAIL AT TIME OF REPORT. (DMX) |
| 2:15 pm | 3.25 | 2 ENE Windsor Heights | Polk | PICTURE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA OF 3.25 INCH HAIL IN BEAVERDALE. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR. (DMX) |
| 2:16 pm | 1.25 | 1 NE Des Moines | Polk | AT THE STATE CAPITOL. (DMX) |
| 2:21 pm | 1.75 | 1 NE Des Moines | Polk | CORRECTS PREVIOUS HAIL REPORT FROM 1 NE DES MOINES TO CORRECT SOURCE. INCREASED HAIL SIZE AT THE STATE CAPITOL. (DMX) |
| 2:23 pm | 1.75 | 1 E Des Moines Int Airp | Polk | ONGOING AT TIME OF REPORT. (DMX) |
| 2:24 pm | 1.00 | 1 NNE Des Moines | Polk | AT THE CAPITAL COMPLEX. (DMX) |
| 2:36 pm | 1.00 | Carlisle | Warren | HAIL ONGOING AT TIME OF REPORT. (DMX) |
| 2:49 pm | 1.50 | 2 E Indianola | Warren | AT PICKARD PARK EAST OF INDIANOLA. (DMX) |
What NEXRAD radar recorded inside the metro
98 signatures from 3 radars fell inside the metro's counties on this local date, counting every cell the algorithm rated from a 10% to a 100% chance of hail; 21 were rated 100% and 16 had a maximum expected size of 2 inches or more.
| Radar | Signatures | Rated 100% | 1 in or more | 2 in or more | Largest expected | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOAX | 43 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 4.00 in | 12:49 am | 2:11 pm |
| KDMX | 43 | 6 | 9 | 2 | 3.00 in | 12:49 am | 2:55 pm |
| KDVN | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.50 in | 1:30 am | 2:04 am |
Each radar that scans a storm writes its own signature about every 4 to 6 minutes, so one storm produces many rows and overlapping radars count it more than once. The raw rows for this day are in NOAA's Severe Weather Data Inventory.
Check an address for July 9, 2021
See, free, how many hail signatures NOAA recorded within 1, 3 and 5 miles of one address that day and the nearest spotter report. The full report is $19.
Spotter reports come from the Storm Prediction Center's preliminary daily logs, grouped here by local calendar date (Central Daylight Time) and by county: a report counts for Des Moines when its coordinates fall inside one of the metro's 6 counties (Polk, Dallas, Warren, Madison, Jasper and Story counties). Radar signatures are estimates from the Hail Detection Algorithm, not measured stones; they include every cell it rated, from a 10% to a 100% probability of hail. How these pages are built.