The most recent reported hail day was 2026-04-17, 105 days ago. Stephenson County is hit in most years. The largest stone on record here is 3 inches, a teacup and 3 times the National Weather Service's 1 inch severe criterion, reported on 2026-04-17 near Dakota.
Colored swath = NOAA MRMS radar-estimated hail size; dots = NOAA SPC reports in Illinois. Radar-indicated, not a guarantee of damage.
The last hail here fell on 2026-04-17, around Dakota. A free SwathIQ account -- hand-reviewed, invite within 24-48h -- pulls Stephenson County addresses inside a hail swath above your size threshold into a door-knock list you can export, scoped to your approved markets.
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See call-center options ->NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has logged 21 separate hail days here since 2010 -- 1.2 a year over 17 years of record. Those days carry 48 separate reports between them, two or three on a typical one. 3 of those 17 years produced none at all. The busiest single year was 2026, with 2 hail days. The last five years track the long-run rate, with 8 days since 2022.
5 of the 21 days reached 2 inches or more -- 24%, or about one hail day in 4, the last on 2026-04-17. They land in the same month as everything else, April. 6 of the 21 days reached golf-ball size, 1.75 inches or bigger.
Across the whole of Illinois, see the Illinois hail map and history.
Reports cluster nearest Freeport -- 6 of the county's 21 hail days -- then Winslow (5), Dakota (3), Rock Grove (3) and Davis (3). Beyond those, NOAA names Lena, Orangeville, Scioto Mills and Freeport Albertus on more than one hail day apiece.
| Place | Hail days since 2010 | Largest stone |
|---|---|---|
| Freeport | 3 | 1.25″ |
| 2 W Dakota | 2 | 3.00″ |
| 1 N Dakota | 2 | 1.75″ |
| Orangeville | 2 | 1.75″ |
| 2 ESE Scioto Mills | 2 | 1.50″ |
The season runs April through August: 18 of the 21 hail days on record fall in those 5 months (86%). April is the single busiest month, with 5 of them (24%). That peak opens the window: the season starts at its worst and eases off from there. Hail has also been reported in February and March, outside that window. Reports span 7 of the 12 calendar months; the other 5 have never produced one.
| Month | Hail days |
|---|---|
| February | 1 |
| March | 2 |
| April | 5 |
| May | 5 |
| June | 4 |
| July | 1 |
| August | 3 |
That day put 8 reports on the map, the biggest 3 inches near Dakota. 2 hail days have already been reported this year.
| Date | Max hail | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-04-17 | 3.00″ | 8 |
| 2026-03-10 | 2.75″ | 9 |
| 2025-08-16 | 3.00″ | 2 |
| 2024-05-21 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2024-02-08 | 1.50″ | 3 |
| 2023-04-04 | 1.75″ | 2 |
| 2022-07-22 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2022-05-13 | 1.00″ | 1 |
The colored swath is NOAA's MRMS radar estimate of the largest hail per ~1 km cell; the dots are SPC ground reports. Yellow is about an inch, red 1.5 to 2″, purple 2″ and up (hail size vs roof damage). On this county's worst day the reports reached 3 inches, which is the purple band. Look up a street address with the hail history by address tool.
The nearest counties with a page of their own, over the state line included: Winnebago County (41 hail days), Ogle County (25), Jo Daviess County (18) and Green County, Wisconsin (18). Stephenson County sits in between.
Winnebago County · Ogle County · Jo Daviess County · Green County, Wisconsin
Back to the Illinois hail map or the U.S. hail map.
Data & method: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center reports + NOAA MRMS MESH radar, Stephenson County, Illinois only. Radar-indicated and observation-based -- informational only, not a guarantee of damage or a valid claim.