The most recent reported hail day was 2024-02-27 -- 2 years ago, with nothing reported since. Carter County is hit in about half the years on record. The largest stone on record here is 1.75 inches, a golf ball and 1.8 times the National Weather Service's 1 inch severe criterion, reported on 2017-05-27 near Olive Hill.
Colored swath = NOAA MRMS radar-estimated hail size; dots = NOAA SPC reports in Kentucky. Radar-indicated, not a guarantee of damage.
The last hail here fell on 2024-02-27, around Carter Caves State. A free SwathIQ account -- hand-reviewed, invite within 24-48h -- pulls Carter 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 14 separate hail days here since 2010 -- 0.8 a year over 17 years of record. They carry 20 reports in total: most hail days here are logged from a single spot. 9 of those 17 years produced none at all. One year dominates the record: 2012 alone produced 4 of the 14 days. The last five years have been quieter than the long run: 1 days since 2022, against 1.1 a year before that.
No stone of 2 inches or more has ever been reported in Carter County: all 14 hail days on record topped out below that. 4 of the 14 days reached golf-ball size, 1.75 inches or bigger.
Across the whole of Kentucky, see the Kentucky hail map and history.
Reports cluster nearest Grayson -- 6 of the county's 14 hail days -- then Olive Hill (5) and Carter Caves State (2). That one town is named on 43% of them.
| Place | Hail days since 2010 | Largest stone |
|---|---|---|
| Grayson | 4 | 1.75″ |
| Olive Hill | 3 | 1.75″ |
| 3 Nnw Olive Hill | 1 | 1.75″ |
| 5 N Olive Hill | 1 | 1.75″ |
| 2 Nw Hitchins | 1 | 1.25″ |
The season runs February through June: 12 of the 14 hail days on record fall in those 5 months (86%). April is the single busiest month, with 4 of them (29%). That peak sits inside the window rather than at either end. Hail has also been reported in July and September, 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 | 4 |
| May | 3 |
| June | 2 |
| July | 1 |
| September | 1 |
That day put 1 report on the map, the biggest 1 inch near Carter Caves State. No hail day has been reported here yet this year.
| Date | Max hail | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-02-27 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2017-05-27 | 1.75″ | 2 |
| 2016-05-10 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2016-05-01 | 1.75″ | 3 |
| 2015-06-25 | 1.25″ | 3 |
| 2015-04-08 | 1.00″ | 2 |
| 2014-04-29 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2012-09-26 | 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 1.75 inches, which is the red 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: Lawrence County (19 hail days), Morgan County (13), Johnson County (13), Lawrence County, Ohio (16) and Scioto County, Ohio (14). Carter County sits in between.
Lawrence County · Morgan County · Johnson County · Lawrence County, Ohio · Scioto County, Ohio
Back to the Kentucky hail map or the U.S. hail map.
Data & method: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center reports + NOAA MRMS MESH radar, Carter County, Kentucky only. Radar-indicated and observation-based -- informational only, not a guarantee of damage or a valid claim.