The most recent reported hail day was 2026-04-14, 108 days ago. Buchanan County is hit in most years. The largest stone on record here is 3.25 inches and 3.2 times the National Weather Service's 1 inch severe criterion, reported on 2026-04-14 near Otterville.
Colored swath = NOAA MRMS radar-estimated hail size; dots = NOAA SPC reports in Iowa. Radar-indicated, not a guarantee of damage.
The last hail here fell on 2026-04-14, around Otterville. A free SwathIQ account -- hand-reviewed, invite within 24-48h -- pulls Buchanan 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 20 separate hail days here since 2010 -- 1.2 a year over 17 years of record. Those days carry 49 separate reports between them, two or three on a typical one. 5 of those 17 years produced none at all. One year dominates the record: 2024 alone produced 4 of the 20 days. The last five years have run hotter than the long-run rate: 8 days since 2022, against 1.0 a year before that.
2 of the 20 days reached 2 inches or more -- 10%, or about one hail day in 10, the last on 2026-04-14. Those big days do not follow the county's usual calendar: most of them fall in April, not May. 7 of the 20 days reached golf-ball size, 1.75 inches or bigger.
Across the whole of Iowa, see the Iowa hail map and history.
Reports cluster nearest Independence -- 8 of the county's 20 hail days -- then Aurora (5), Otterville (3), Jesup (3) and Winthrop (3). That one town is named on 40% of them. Beyond those, NOAA names Lamont and Rowley on more than one hail day apiece.
| Place | Hail days since 2010 | Largest stone |
|---|---|---|
| 1 WNW Independence | 4 | 1.75″ |
| Jesup | 3 | 1.75″ |
| 1 N Independence | 2 | 1.75″ |
| 2 Se Otterville | 2 | 1.75″ |
| Aurora | 2 | 1.00″ |
The season runs April through June: 18 of the 20 hail days on record fall in those 3 months (90%). May is the single busiest month, with 7 of them (35%). That peak sits inside the window rather than at either end. Hail has also been reported in March and July, outside that window. Reports span 5 of the 12 calendar months; the other 7 have never produced one.
| Month | Hail days |
|---|---|
| March | 1 |
| April | 5 |
| May | 7 |
| June | 6 |
| July | 1 |
That day put 6 reports on the map, the biggest 3.25 inches near Otterville. 1 hail day has already been reported this year.
| Date | Max hail | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-04-14 | 3.25″ | 6 |
| 2024-05-27 | 1.50″ | 1 |
| 2024-05-24 | 1.75″ | 1 |
| 2024-05-08 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2024-05-07 | 1.00″ | 2 |
| 2023-05-07 | 1.25″ | 1 |
| 2023-04-04 | 1.75″ | 3 |
| 2022-06-15 | 2.75″ | 2 |
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 3.25 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: Fayette County (23 hail days), Delaware County (16) and Black Hawk County (23). Buchanan County sits in between.
Fayette County · Delaware County · Black Hawk County
Back to the Iowa hail map or the U.S. hail map.
Data & method: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center reports + NOAA MRMS MESH radar, Buchanan County, Iowa only. Radar-indicated and observation-based -- informational only, not a guarantee of damage or a valid claim.