Polk County, Iowa Hail Map & History
Polk County was hit as recently as 2026-09-08, 6 days ago. Polk County is hit in most years, and usually several times over. 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 2021-07-09 near Windsor Heights.
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 2026-09-08, around Ankeny. A free SwathIQ account -- hand-reviewed, invite within 24-48h -- pulls Polk 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 ->How often it hails in Polk County
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has logged 56 separate hail days here since 2010 -- 3.3 a year over 17 years of record. Those days carry 230 separate reports between them, better than three on a typical one. No year since 2010 has gone by without at least one. The busiest single year was 2026, with 7 hail days. The last five years track the long-run rate, with 18 days since 2022.
8 of the 56 days reached 2 inches or more -- 14%, or about one hail day in 7, the last on 2026-09-08. Those big days do not follow the county's usual calendar: most of them fall in July, not May. Golf-ball size is rarer still: 1.75 inches or more on 11 of the 56 days.
Across the whole of Iowa, see the Iowa hail map and history.
Hardest-hit places in Polk County
Reports cluster nearest Des Moines -- 14 of the county's 56 hail days -- then Urbandale (13), Windsor Heights (12), Ankeny (10) and Grimes (10). Beyond those, NOAA names Johnston, Clive, Saylorville, West Des Moines, Pleasant Hill, Altoona, Ankeny Airport, Bondurant and Des Moines Int Airport on more than one hail day apiece.
| Place | Hail days since 2010 | Largest stone |
|---|---|---|
| Ankeny | 5 | 2.25″ |
| Grimes | 5 | 2.00″ |
| 2 Ene Urbandale | 4 | 2.75″ |
| Johnston | 4 | 2.75″ |
| Des Moines Int Airport | 4 | 1.75″ |
When it hails in Polk County
The season runs March through July: 46 of the 56 hail days on record fall in those 5 months (82%). May is the single busiest month, with 12 of them (21%). That peak sits inside the window rather than at either end. Hail has also been reported in August, September and October, outside that window. Reports span 8 of the 12 calendar months; the other 4 have never produced one.
| Month | Hail days |
|---|---|
| March | 7 |
| April | 9 |
| May | 12 |
| June | 11 |
| July | 7 |
| August | 3 |
| September | 5 |
| October | 2 |
Recent Polk County hail days
That day put 8 reports on the map, the biggest 2.25 inches near Ankeny. 7 hail days have already been reported this year.
| Date | Max hail | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-08 | 2.25″ | 8 |
| 2026-07-20 | 1.00″ | 2 |
| 2026-07-02 | 1.50″ | 5 |
| 2026-04-23 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2026-04-17 | 1.50″ | 5 |
| 2026-04-15 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2026-03-30 | 1.00″ | 3 |
| 2025-05-19 | 1.00″ | 3 |
How to read the Polk County map
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.
Nearby counties
The nearest counties with a page of their own: Dallas County (40 hail days), Warren County (43) and Madison County (24). Polk County takes more hail than any of them.
Dallas County · Warren County · Madison County
Back to the Iowa hail map or the U.S. hail map.
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Data & method: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center reports + NOAA MRMS MESH radar, Polk County, Iowa only. Radar-indicated and observation-based -- informational only, not a guarantee of damage or a valid claim.