Hail in Des Moines on Friday, April 17, 2026
The Storm Prediction Center logged 19 hail reports in Des Moines on Friday, April 17, 2026, between 1:58 pm and 6:26 pm CDT, in 5 of the metro's 6 counties. The largest was 1.75 inches at 4 WNW Reasnor (Jasper County) at 2:51 pm. NOAA radar flagged 129 hail signatures inside the metro that day: 63 rated a 100% chance of hail and 62 with a maximum expected size of 1 inch or more.
Where hail was reported
Reports came from 12 places in Dallas, Jasper, Polk, Story and Warren counties, named as the National Weather Service described them.
- Colfax 4 reports, up to 1.50 in
- Lambs Grove 2 reports, up to 1.75 in
- Reasnor 2 reports, up to 1.75 in
- Saylorville 2 reports, up to 1.25 in
- Waukee 2 reports, up to 1.00 in
- Ankeny 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Collins 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Cumming 1 report, up to 1.25 in
- Des Moines 1 report, up to 1.50 in
- Mitchellville 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Newton 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Oakland Acres 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:58 pm | 1.00 | Ankeny | Polk | (DMX) |
| 2:01 pm | 1.25 | Cumming | Warren | Time estimated from radar. (DMX) |
| 2:04 pm | 1.00 | 3 SE Saylorville | Polk | Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). (DMX) |
| 2:05 pm | 1.25 | 3 E Saylorville | Polk | Reported by Trained Spotter. (DMX) |
| 2:11 pm | 1.50 | Des Moines | Polk | Multiple reports across the metro of 1 to 1.5 inch hail. Time/location estimated from radar. (DMX) |
| 2:21 pm | 1.00 | Collins | Story | Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). (DMX) |
| 2:26 pm | 1.00 | 3 SSW Mitchellville | Polk | (DMX) |
| 2:40 pm | 1.50 | Colfax | Jasper | Delayed report - time and location estimated from radar. (DMX) |
| 2:40 pm | 1.50 | 2 N Colfax | Jasper | Time estimated via radar. (DMX) |
| 2:41 pm | 1.25 | 3 N Colfax | Jasper | Report from mPING: Half Dollar (1.25 in.). (DMX) |
| 2:45 pm | 1.50 | Colfax | Jasper | Time estimated from radar. (DMX) |
| 2:45 pm | 1.00 | 1 W Newton | Jasper | Delayed report - time estimated from radar. (DMX) |
| 2:50 pm | 1.75 | 1 ESE Lambs Grove | Jasper | (DMX) |
| 2:50 pm | 1.75 | 4 NNE Lambs Grove | Jasper | Delayed report - time and location estimated from radar. (DMX) |
| 2:51 pm | 1.75 | 4 WNW Reasnor | Jasper | Time estimated on radar. (DMX) |
| 3:10 pm | 1.00 | 3 NE Oakland Acres | Jasper | Delayed report - time estimated from radar. (DMX) |
| 3:15 pm | 1.25 | 4 N Reasnor | Jasper | Delayed report - time estimated from radar. (DMX) |
| 6:25 pm | 1.00 | 2 NW Waukee | Dallas | Delayed report. (DMX) |
| 6:26 pm | 1.00 | 1 NE Waukee | Dallas | Delayed report. (DMX) |
What NEXRAD radar recorded inside the metro
129 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; 63 were rated 100% and 12 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 | 69 | 27 | 30 | 7 | 2.50 in | 1:37 pm | 6:58 pm |
| KDVN | 36 | 23 | 20 | 5 | 2.50 in | 2:07 pm | 6:59 pm |
| KOAX | 24 | 13 | 12 | 0 | 1.50 in | 1:43 pm | 6:37 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 April 17, 2026
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.