Hail in Des Moines on Friday, March 31, 2023
The Storm Prediction Center logged 12 hail reports in Des Moines on Friday, March 31, 2023, between 2:43 pm and 3:01 pm CDT, in 2 of the metro's 6 counties. The largest was 1.75 inches at 2 W Ames (Story County) at 2:50 pm. NOAA radar flagged 109 hail signatures inside the metro that day: 45 rated a 100% chance of hail and 41 with a maximum expected size of 1 inch or more.
Where hail was reported
Reports came from 5 places in Story and Warren counties, named as the National Weather Service described them.
- Ames 8 reports, up to 1.75 in
- Gilbert 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Lacona 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Napier 1 report, up to 1.25 in
- Story City 1 report, up to 1.00 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2:43 pm | 1.00 | Lacona | Warren | (DMX) |
| 2:50 pm | 1.75 | 2 W Ames | Story | GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL COVERING THE GROUND. (DMX) |
| 2:50 pm | 1.00 | 3 WNW Ames | Story | HAIL STARTED ABOUT 2:50PM AND LASTED UNTIL 2:54PM. LARGEST HAILSTONES WERE ALMOST 1 INCH IN DIAMETER. ACCUMULATED IN DRIFTS DUE TO STRONG WINDS FROM THE SOUTH. ALSO ACC (DMX) |
| 2:50 pm | 1.00 | 3 NW Ames | Story | (DMX) |
| 2:52 pm | 1.00 | 1 SW Ames | Story | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). (DMX) |
| 2:52 pm | 1.25 | 1 WSW Ames | Story | (DMX) |
| 2:53 pm | 1.00 | 2 W Ames | Story | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). (DMX) |
| 2:55 pm | 1.00 | 2 W Ames | Story | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). (DMX) |
| 2:56 pm | 1.25 | 3 NNE Napier | Story | SOME SIDING DAMAGE. (DMX) |
| 2:57 pm | 1.00 | 1 W Ames | Story | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). (DMX) |
| 3:00 pm | 1.00 | Gilbert | Story | (DMX) |
| 3:01 pm | 1.00 | 1 S Story City | Story | (DMX) |
What NEXRAD radar recorded inside the metro
109 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; 45 were rated 100% and 6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KDMX | 71 | 23 | 21 | 3 | 3.75 in | 12:01 am | 4:25 pm |
| KOAX | 21 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 2.50 in | 1:50 pm | 3:27 pm |
| KDVN | 17 | 13 | 11 | 0 | 1.50 in | 2:28 pm | 4:25 pm |
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 March 31, 2023
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.