Hail in Sioux Falls on Thursday, August 20, 2026
The Storm Prediction Center logged 8 hail reports in Sioux Falls on Thursday, August 20, 2026, between 6:48 pm and 7:28 pm CDT, in 2 of the metro's 4 counties. The largest was 1.75 inches at Humboldt (Minnehaha County) at 6:48 pm. NOAA radar flagged 73 hail signatures inside the metro that day: 48 rated a 100% chance of hail and 50 with a maximum expected size of 1 inch or more.
Where hail was reported
Reports came from 5 places in Lincoln and Minnehaha counties, named as the National Weather Service described them.
- Crooks 4 reports, up to 1.50 in
- Baltic 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Hartford 1 report, up to 1.25 in
- Humboldt 1 report, up to 1.75 in
- Sioux Falls 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6:48 pm | 1.75 | Humboldt | Minnehaha | (FSD) |
| 7:00 pm | 1.25 | 2 W Hartford | Minnehaha | Photo posted to social media. (FSD) |
| 7:02 pm | 1.50 | 5 NW Crooks | Minnehaha | Photo posted to social media. Time estimated based on radar. (FSD) |
| 7:10 pm | 1.25 | 3 NE Crooks | Minnehaha | Minor leaf damage. (FSD) |
| 7:10 pm | 1.25 | 4 NE Crooks | Minnehaha | Hail may have been larger. The hail was still quarter size when found in the grass over 30 minutes after it fell. (FSD) |
| 7:14 pm | 1.00 | 2 W Baltic | Minnehaha | Report relayed from NWS Aberdeen office. (FSD) |
| 7:15 pm | 1.00 | 5 ENE Crooks | Minnehaha | Report and photo via social media. (FSD) |
| 7:28 pm | 1.00 | 4 S Sioux Falls | Lincoln | (FSD) |
What NEXRAD radar recorded inside the metro
73 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; 48 were rated 100% and 15 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KFSD | 46 | 28 | 31 | 10 | 3.25 in | 6:15 pm | 8:48 pm |
| KABR | 16 | 14 | 13 | 5 | 2.25 in | 6:17 pm | 7:04 pm |
| KOAX | 11 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 1.75 in | 7:20 pm | 8:58 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 August 20, 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 Sioux Falls when its coordinates fall inside one of the metro's 4 counties (Minnehaha, Lincoln, Turner and McCook 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.