Hail in Wichita on Friday, April 17, 2026
The Storm Prediction Center logged 15 hail reports in Wichita on Friday, April 17, 2026, between 1:59 pm and 3:59 pm CDT, in 4 of the metro's 4 counties. The largest was 1.75 inches at Derby (Sedgwick County) at 3:41 pm. NOAA radar flagged 1,073 hail signatures inside the metro that day: 503 rated a 100% chance of hail and 463 with a maximum expected size of 1 inch or more.
Where hail was reported
Reports came from 12 places in Butler, Harvey, Sedgwick and Sumner counties, named as the National Weather Service described them.
- Benton 2 reports, up to 1.25 in
- Derby 2 reports, up to 1.75 in
- Whitewater 2 reports, up to 1.50 in
- Bel Aire 1 report, up to 1.25 in
- Conway Springs 1 report, up to 1.25 in
- Haysville 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Maize 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Mayfield 1 report, up to 1.25 in
- Rose Hill 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Towanda 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Valley Center 1 report, up to 1.50 in
- Wichita Eisenhower Airp 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:59 pm | 1.50 | Valley Center | Sedgwick | (ICT) |
| 2:20 pm | 1.50 | 1 WSW Whitewater | Harvey | Pea to ping pong ball sized hail. (ICT) |
| 2:23 pm | 1.00 | Whitewater | Butler | Relayed from local fire department. (ICT) |
| 2:36 pm | 1.00 | Wichita Eisenhower Airp | Sedgwick | Mostly pea to penny sized hail with a couple of quarter sized pieces. (ICT) |
| 2:43 pm | 1.00 | 4 SSE Maize | Sedgwick | (ICT) |
| 2:52 pm | 1.25 | 1 E Bel Aire | Sedgwick | Half dollar hail via mPING. (ICT) |
| 3:00 pm | 1.25 | Benton | Butler | (ICT) |
| 3:00 pm | 1.00 | 2 WNW Benton | Butler | (ICT) |
| 3:02 pm | 1.25 | Conway Springs | Sumner | (ICT) |
| 3:06 pm | 1.00 | 4 N Towanda | Butler | (ICT) |
| 3:33 pm | 1.00 | 3 S Haysville | Sedgwick | (ICT) |
| 3:38 pm | 1.00 | Derby | Sedgwick | (ICT) |
| 3:41 pm | 1.75 | Derby | Sedgwick | Golf ball sized hail sent via mPING. (ICT) |
| 3:54 pm | 1.00 | 2 WNW Rose Hill | Sedgwick | (ICT) |
| 3:59 pm | 1.25 | Mayfield | Sumner | (ICT) |
What NEXRAD radar recorded inside the metro
1,073 signatures from 8 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; 503 were rated 100% and 64 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KICH | 362 | 74 | 91 | 7 | 2.25 in | 1:14 pm | 6:05 pm |
| KVNX | 194 | 119 | 107 | 13 | 2.75 in | 1:18 pm | 6:06 pm |
| KICT | 175 | 89 | 90 | 26 | 3.25 in | 1:09 pm | 6:03 pm |
| KTWX | 141 | 86 | 64 | 2 | 2.25 in | 1:15 pm | 6:09 pm |
| KINX | 105 | 60 | 44 | 3 | 2.00 in | 1:55 pm | 6:31 pm |
| KDDC | 66 | 56 | 49 | 8 | 2.50 in | 1:15 pm | 4:48 pm |
| KTLX | 27 | 17 | 16 | 5 | 2.25 in | 4:20 pm | 6:08 pm |
| KEAX | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1.00 in | 3:22 pm | 4:16 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 Wichita when its coordinates fall inside one of the metro's 4 counties (Sedgwick, Butler, Harvey and Sumner 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.