Hail in Wichita on Monday, May 18, 2026
The Storm Prediction Center logged 6 hail reports in Wichita on Monday, May 18, 2026, between 7:37 pm and 11:06 pm CDT, in 2 of the metro's 4 counties. The largest was 1.75 inches at 4 NE Milan (Sumner County) at 10:37 pm. NOAA radar flagged 1,470 hail signatures inside the metro that day: 788 rated a 100% chance of hail and 601 with a maximum expected size of 1 inch or more.
Where hail was reported
Reports came from 5 places in Harvey and Sumner counties, named as the National Weather Service described them.
- Wellington 2 reports, up to 1.00 in
- Conway Springs 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Halstead 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Mayfield 1 report, up to 1.50 in
- Milan 1 report, up to 1.75 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7:37 pm | 1.00 | 2 S Halstead | Harvey | (ICT) |
| 10:26 pm | 1.00 | Conway Springs | Sumner | Dimes with some quarters. (ICT) |
| 10:37 pm | 1.75 | 4 NE Milan | Sumner | Report from mPING: Golf Ball (1.75 in.). (ICT) |
| 10:57 pm | 1.50 | 3 E Mayfield | Sumner | Report from mPING: Ping Pong Ball (1.50 in.). (ICT) |
| 11:02 pm | 1.00 | Wellington | Sumner | (ICT) |
| 11:06 pm | 1.00 | 4 E Wellington | Sumner | Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). (ICT) |
What NEXRAD radar recorded inside the metro
1,470 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; 788 were rated 100% and 117 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 | 626 | 208 | 159 | 0 | 1.75 in | 6:36 pm | 11:57 pm |
| KVNX | 251 | 166 | 115 | 24 | 4.00 in | 6:42 pm | 11:57 pm |
| KICT | 218 | 138 | 126 | 30 | 3.00 in | 6:41 pm | 11:56 pm |
| KTWX | 144 | 98 | 43 | 5 | 2.50 in | 6:42 pm | 11:58 pm |
| KINX | 95 | 71 | 57 | 12 | 3.00 in | 8:41 pm | 11:59 pm |
| KDDC | 81 | 63 | 57 | 21 | 3.75 in | 6:46 pm | 11:54 pm |
| KTLX | 51 | 42 | 44 | 25 | 3.25 in | 10:13 pm | 11:57 pm |
| KEAX | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.75 in | 8:49 pm | 10:04 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 May 18, 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.