Historical hail archive: January 2016–December 2025. NOAA radar estimates within 25 miles of each city centre. ZIP matches use the first three digits; this is not a property-level report or a live alert service. Coverage and source.
Pennington County · South Dakota · NOAA radar record 2016–2025
Hail damage in Rapid City, SD
Radar has detected hail over Rapid City on 331 separate days since 2016. On 156 of them the largest stone was estimated at golf-ball size or bigger. The biggest was 10.2 cm on July 20, 2025.
A very high value in this historical exposure model. This is not a national percentile or a diagnosis of your roof; the component values explain the result.
How we got to that number
| Component | Value | Weight | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency Hail days per year at 1.00 in (2.5 cm) or larger | 69 / 100 | × 0.35 | 24.1 |
| Severity Largest stone radar estimated in the whole window | 100 / 100 | × 0.30 | 30.0 |
| Recency How long since the last 2 in (5 cm) day | 92 / 100 | × 0.20 | 18.4 |
| Concentration Hail days per year reaching golf-ball size | 78 / 100 | × 0.15 | 11.7 |
| RoofTake Score | 84 | ||
The score describes an area, not a house. Two roofs on the same street of different ages face very different risk from the identical storm. The whole formula and its weights are on the methodology page, and you can recompute it yourself from our public data.
Black Hills terrain focuses storms into repeat hail corridors.
Check your own ZIP code Is your roof damaged?
Data last refreshed: · source: NOAA NCEI Severe Weather Data Inventory, dataset nx3hail
The ten biggest hail days in Rapid City since 2016
| Date | Radar max size | Metric | Comparison | Signatures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 18, 2016 | 4.00 in | 10.2 cm | Grapefruit | 52 |
| July 29, 2016 | 4.00 in | 10.2 cm | Grapefruit | 17 |
| September 24, 2016 | 4.00 in | 10.2 cm | Grapefruit | 9 |
| August 14, 2017 | 4.00 in | 10.2 cm | Grapefruit | 41 |
| August 15, 2017 | 4.00 in | 10.2 cm | Grapefruit | 7 |
| August 26, 2017 | 4.00 in | 10.2 cm | Grapefruit | 27 |
| June 29, 2018 | 4.00 in | 10.2 cm | Grapefruit | 16 |
| June 2, 2019 | 4.00 in | 10.2 cm | Grapefruit | 45 |
| July 10, 2020 | 4.00 in | 10.2 cm | Grapefruit | 18 |
| June 27, 2023 | 4.00 in | 10.2 cm | Grapefruit | 11 |
"Signatures" is the number of separate radar volume scans that detected hail in a storm cell within 25 miles that day. More signatures means a longer-lived or larger storm, not necessarily bigger stones.
Hail days by year
Busiest year in the record: 2018 with 42 hail days.
Hail days by month
Peak month: July. Hail season in South Dakota is short and it is not distributed evenly — most of the annual risk arrives in a few weeks.
What to do with this if you own a roof in Rapid City
- Find your dates. Look up your ZIP for the record nearest you, and note every day at 1.00 in or above since you bought the house.
- Work out whether your roof could have survived them. A twelve-year-old asphalt roof and a two-year-old one respond very differently to the same stone — the age calculator explains why.
- Look, before you file. Nine photographs, none of them requiring you to get on the roof.
- Check the arithmetic. If the actual cash value of the damage is under your deductible, filing pays nothing — work it out first.
- Then write. The letter generator puts the Rapid City radar record and the NOAA citation into your notice of claim.
Every hail day radar recorded near Rapid City
331 days, most recent first. Sizes are radar estimates of the largest stone aloft in the cell, not measurements at any address.
- October 16, 20251.75 in (4.4 cm) — Golf ball size, radar-estimated
- September 16, 20251.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- September 12, 20251.25 in (3.2 cm) — Half dollar size, radar-estimated
- August 18, 20253.00 in (7.6 cm) — Teacup size, radar-estimated
- August 17, 20252.75 in (7.0 cm) — Baseball size, radar-estimated
- August 16, 20250.75 in (1.9 cm) — Penny size, radar-estimated
- August 15, 20251.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- August 13, 20251.25 in (3.2 cm) — Half dollar size, radar-estimated
- August 10, 20251.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- August 5, 20251.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- August 3, 20252.00 in (5.1 cm) — Hen egg size, radar-estimated
- August 2, 20251.75 in (4.4 cm) — Golf ball size, radar-estimated
- August 1, 20250.75 in (1.9 cm) — Penny size, radar-estimated
- July 27, 20253.25 in (8.3 cm) — Teacup size, radar-estimated
- July 23, 20252.50 in (6.3 cm) — Tennis ball size, radar-estimated
- July 20, 20254.00 in (10.2 cm) — Grapefruit size, radar-estimated
- July 15, 20250.75 in (1.9 cm) — Penny size, radar-estimated
- July 14, 20251.75 in (4.4 cm) — Golf ball size, radar-estimated
- July 10, 20251.75 in (4.4 cm) — Golf ball size, radar-estimated
- July 9, 20250.75 in (1.9 cm) — Penny size, radar-estimated
- July 7, 20251.75 in (4.4 cm) — Golf ball size, radar-estimated
- July 6, 20253.00 in (7.6 cm) — Teacup size, radar-estimated
- July 5, 20251.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- June 29, 20251.50 in (3.8 cm) — Ping-pong ball size, radar-estimated
- June 17, 20253.50 in (8.9 cm) — Teacup size, radar-estimated
- June 16, 20251.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- May 23, 20250.50 in (1.3 cm) — Marble size, radar-estimated
- May 14, 20251.25 in (3.2 cm) — Half dollar size, radar-estimated
- May 9, 20251.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- April 28, 20252.25 in (5.7 cm) — Hen egg size, radar-estimated
- September 16, 20242.25 in (5.7 cm) — Hen egg size, radar-estimated
- September 13, 20241.75 in (4.4 cm) — Golf ball size, radar-estimated
- August 26, 20243.50 in (8.9 cm) — Teacup size, radar-estimated
- August 25, 20240.50 in (1.3 cm) — Marble size, radar-estimated
- August 22, 20242.25 in (5.7 cm) — Hen egg size, radar-estimated
- August 21, 20241.50 in (3.8 cm) — Ping-pong ball size, radar-estimated
- August 20, 20244.00 in (10.2 cm) — Grapefruit size, radar-estimated
- August 14, 20241.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- August 11, 20244.00 in (10.2 cm) — Grapefruit size, radar-estimated
- August 7, 20240.75 in (1.9 cm) — Penny size, radar-estimated
- August 2, 20241.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- July 29, 20244.00 in (10.2 cm) — Grapefruit size, radar-estimated
- July 28, 20243.25 in (8.3 cm) — Teacup size, radar-estimated
- July 27, 20240.50 in (1.3 cm) — Marble size, radar-estimated
- July 22, 20241.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- July 19, 20241.25 in (3.2 cm) — Half dollar size, radar-estimated
- July 17, 20241.75 in (4.4 cm) — Golf ball size, radar-estimated
- July 13, 20241.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- July 11, 20240.75 in (1.9 cm) — Penny size, radar-estimated
- July 3, 20243.25 in (8.3 cm) — Teacup size, radar-estimated
- July 1, 20241.75 in (4.4 cm) — Golf ball size, radar-estimated
- June 27, 20241.00 in (2.5 cm) — Quarter size, radar-estimated
- June 25, 20243.00 in (7.6 cm) — Teacup size, radar-estimated
- June 18, 20242.25 in (5.7 cm) — Hen egg size, radar-estimated
- June 15, 20241.25 in (3.2 cm) — Half dollar size, radar-estimated
- June 10, 20241.50 in (3.8 cm) — Ping-pong ball size, radar-estimated
- June 2, 20240.50 in (1.3 cm) — Marble size, radar-estimated
- June 1, 20241.25 in (3.2 cm) — Half dollar size, radar-estimated
- May 30, 20241.25 in (3.2 cm) — Half dollar size, radar-estimated
- May 29, 20240.75 in (1.9 cm) — Penny size, radar-estimated
Showing the 60 most recent of 331. The full record is in the JSON we publish: rapid-city-sd.json.
From people in Rapid City
The part of this page that no dataset can produce. Everything here is read by a human before it appears.
Neighbourhood reports
Claim outcomes
Damage photos from Rapid City storms
Hail in Rapid City, SD: common questions
How often does Rapid City get damaging hail?
Radar recorded 331 hail days within 25 miles of the city centre between 2016 and 2025 — an average of 33.1 a year, of which 15.6 a year were at golf-ball size or larger. Not every one of those damages roofs.
When is hail season in Rapid City?
The busiest month in this record is July, and 2018 was the busiest single year with 42 hail days.
Does this mean my roof is damaged?
No. These are radar estimates of the largest stone aloft in a storm cell somewhere within 25 miles of the city centre. Whether anything landed on your street, and whether it damaged your particular roof, needs somebody to look.
How do I use this for an insurance claim?
A specific date with a public, citable source is what turns 'sometime last year' into a date of loss. Use the claim letter generator, which pulls the date and the NOAA citation in for you.
Why 25 miles?
It is wide enough to catch storms that clipped the metro and narrow enough that the number still means something for a house inside it. The same radius is used for every metro so the pages are comparable.
Get quotes from roofers who work in Rapid City
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