Every severe hail event in the counties we work in, built on the National Weather Service storm report log rather than on recollection. 72 logged reports of an inch or more across 7 county events. Largest on record here: 3.50 inches in Blue Earth County.
After a hail storm a lot of pages appear that say a great deal about hail and very little about your county. This says what was measured where, and shows the source for every figure. If a number here disagrees with one you have been given, you can check ours in a single click — which is the entire point.
| County | Date | Largest | Reports | Window (CDT) | Locations reporting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Earth | April 13, 2026 | 3.50″ | 8 | 6:44 PM – 8:28 PM | Lake Crystal, WNW Lake Crystal, W Amboy |
| Goodhue | April 13, 2026 | 3.30″ | 9 | 3:55 PM – 7:35 PM | Dennison, W Hader, ENE Bellechester |
| Rice | April 13, 2026 | 3.00″ | 8 | 3:25 PM – 4:00 PM | NNE Faribault, WSW Faribault, NE Faribault |
| Steele | April 13, 2026 | 3.00″ | 4 | 7:15 PM – 7:45 PM | SE Morristown, NE Owatonna, E Owatonna |
| Nicollet | April 13, 2026 | 2.75″ | 4 | 5:48 PM – 6:17 PM | S St. Peter, E Nicollet, St. Peter |
| Wabasha | April 13, 2026 | 2.50″ | 10 | 5:43 PM – 6:26 PM | ENE Bellechester, W Lake City, Lake City |
| Ramsey | June 19, 2026 | 2.25″ | 29 | 5:23 PM – 6:05 PM | NNE St. Paul, SE Roseville, NE Falcon Heights |
Source: National Weather Service Local Storm Reports via the
Iowa
Environmental Mesonet archive. “Reports” counts logged measurements, not
damaged properties — a county with few reports was not necessarily hit less, it may
simply have had fewer people outside measuring. Re-checkable at any time with
python3 tools/storm-watch.py --verify.
3.50″ maximum · 8 reports of 1″ or larger · 6:44 PM–8:28 PM CDT · Lake Crystal, WNW Lake Crystal, W Amboy, SW Judson
The Weather Service received more than fifty hail measurements across this event. Five were three inches or larger. The largest of all of them was measured at Lake Crystal.
Their own description of the day's range was “from quarter size up to just smaller than softball”. At that size the question on an asphalt roof is not whether there is damage, it is how much of the slope needs to come off.
Many storms from this event produced considerably large hail with varied diameters from quarter size up to just smaller than softball. […] The largest hail stone measured at 3.5" diameter in Lake Crystal, MN (Blue Earth County). Source: NWS Twin Cities, April 13 2026 event summary
Sources: NWS Twin Cities — April 13, 2026 hail and tornadoes · NWS Local Storm Reports, Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive
3.30″ maximum · 9 reports of 1″ or larger · 3:55 PM–7:35 PM CDT · Dennison, W Hader, ENE Bellechester, SSW Frontenac Station
Goodhue's first severe-hail report came in at 3:55 p.m. and its last at 7:35 p.m. No other county in this event stayed under hail for anything like that long; most were done inside an hour.
A roof that is struck once at 4:00 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m. has been loaded twice. Asphalt shingle takes impact differently the second time — the mat is already flexed and the granule bed already disturbed. Repeat loading over an afternoon is one of the reasons two houses with the same measured hail size can show very different damage.
The second largest was 3.3" diameter in Dennison, MN (Goodhue County). Source: NWS Twin Cities, April 13 2026 event summary
Sources: NWS Twin Cities — April 13, 2026 hail and tornadoes · NWS Local Storm Reports, Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive · The Kenyon Leader — Goodhue County sees hail up to 3.3 inches in first storm of season
3.00″ maximum · 8 reports of 1″ or larger · 3:25 PM–4:00 PM CDT · NNE Faribault, WSW Faribault, NE Faribault, W Dennison
The Rice County reports run from 3:25 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Every other county on this list was hit later in the day, several of them hours later. Thirty-five minutes is the entire window in which the county's eight severe-hail reports were filed.
That matters for one practical reason: a short, early storm is the kind people remember as “not that bad” because it was over before the evening news. The measurements say otherwise. Three inches is a stone that cracks mat and splits shingles on impact, not one that merely scuffs granule.
Of the 50+ hail measurements our office received, five reports consisted of hailstones at or greater than 3" diameter. The largest hail stone measured at 3.5" diameter in Lake Crystal, MN (Blue Earth County). The second largest was 3.3" diameter in Dennison, MN (Goodhue County). The third largest hail stones at 3" diameter were measured near Faribault, MN (Rice County) and near Morristown, MN (Steele County). Source: NWS Twin Cities, April 13 2026 event summary
Sources: NWS Twin Cities — April 13, 2026 hail and tornadoes · NWS Local Storm Reports, Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive · Rice County — County officials: Beware of scammers following hailstorm · Faribault Daily News — County warns against contractor scams following hail storm
3.00″ maximum · 4 reports of 1″ or larger · 7:15 PM–7:45 PM CDT · SE Morristown, NE Owatonna, E Owatonna, N Owatonna
The National Weather Service lists the 3.00-inch measurement as “near Morristown, MN (Steele County)”. Morristown is a Rice County town. The stone fell south of it, across the county line, so the report is filed under Steele.
This is not a technicality if you live out there. Insurance desks and estimating software routinely check whether a severe-hail report exists for a given county on a given date. A homeowner south of Morristown is covered by the Steele County record; a neighbour a mile north is covered by the Rice County record. Both exist — but they are separate rows, and a search that checks only one can come back thin.
The third largest hail stones at 3" diameter were measured near Faribault, MN (Rice County) and near Morristown, MN (Steele County). Source: NWS Twin Cities, April 13 2026 event summary
Sources: NWS Twin Cities — April 13, 2026 hail and tornadoes · NWS Local Storm Reports, Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive · Owatonna People's Press — Rural Steele County sees hail up to 3 inches in first storm of season
2.75″ maximum · 4 reports of 1″ or larger · 5:48 PM–6:17 PM CDT · S St. Peter, E Nicollet, St. Peter
The raw Local Storm Report log for April 13 contains a 2.75-inch measurement south of St. Peter at 5:48 p.m. Narrative summaries of the day tend to quote a 2.00-inch figure for St. Peter instead, which is a separate report filed a short distance away.
Neither is wrong. They are two measurements of the same storm in two places. But if an estimate or a claim decision rests on “the largest hail reported in Nicollet County”, the number that answers the question is 2.75 inches, and it is in the national Local Storm Report archive where anyone can pull it.
Sources: NWS Twin Cities — April 13, 2026 hail and tornadoes · NWS Local Storm Reports, Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive
2.50″ maximum · 10 reports of 1″ or larger · 5:43 PM–6:26 PM CDT · ENE Bellechester, W Lake City, Lake City, NNE Wabasha
5:43 p.m. to 6:26 p.m. Ten reports of an inch or larger — the second-highest count of any county on April 13, behind none of the southern counties and ahead of all of them. Seven came from members of the public, two from trained spotters, one from an emergency manager.
The reports concentrate in two places: around Bellechester at the county's western edge, and in and around Lake City on the river.
Sources: NWS Local Storm Reports, Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive · NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database
2.25″ maximum · 29 reports of 1″ or larger · 5:23 PM–6:05 PM CDT · NNE St. Paul, SE Roseville, NE Falcon Heights, W Roseville
5:23 p.m. to 6:05 p.m. Twenty-nine reports of an inch or larger, twenty-five of them from members of the public. That is the densest severe-hail reporting of any county across both of these storms, and it reflects where it happened — a built-up part of the metro with a lot of people outside on a Friday evening in June.
The Weather Service recorded that the largest hail of the day anywhere in the state fell in northern St. Paul, and that in some places it fell for more than ten minutes without stopping. Ten minutes of continuous two-inch hail is a very large number of impacts on one slope.
This storm cut through the Twin Cities metro and hit areas along the I-94 to 694 loop hard, producing 2"+ hail in northern St Paul, MN. Some areas saw hail fall for over 10 minutes straight. […] The largest hail of the day fell in northern St Paul, with several stones being measured over 2" in diameter. Source: NWS Twin Cities, June 19 2026 event summary
Sources: NWS Twin Cities — June 19, 2026 afternoon hail and wind · Minnesota DNR State Climatology — North Metro Hail Burst, June 19, 2026 · NWS Local Storm Reports, Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive
One inch is the severe threshold, but duration matters as much as diameter. How to tell a hail bruise from ordinary granule loss, and why waiting degrades the evidence.
Read the guide →Two separate Minnesota cancellation rights apply after a storm, and they are constantly confused. Both statutes quoted, plus the cancellation form a contractor must hand you.
Read the guide →Deductible rules, the itemized-estimate requirement, and the hail suit deadline that is shorter than most people assume. Every answer quotes the statute and links it.
Read the guide →Tell us where the property is and we will come walk the roof. Free, written scope — and a straight answer if there is nothing wrong with it.
We’ll walk the roof, photograph what we find, and hand you a written scope. Yours to keep whoever does the work — and we’ll tell you straight if there is nothing wrong with it.
We measure the work by how it holds up — and by what clients say once we're gone.