South Dakota Hail Map & History
South Dakota was hit as recently as 2026-09-11, 3 days ago. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has logged 851 separate hail days in South Dakota since 2010, across 6,531 individual storm reports. 260 of those days brought hail 2 inches or larger, and the largest stone on record is 6 inches on 2015-06-19 near Nisland, Butte.
South Dakota pairs eastern hail alley (Sioux Falls) with Black Hills upslope storms near Rapid City. Pick a date below to see the NOAA radar swath and reports, or check a specific address.
Colored swath = NOAA MRMS radar-estimated hail size; dots = NOAA SPC reports in South Dakota. Radar-indicated, not a guarantee of damage.
A free SwathIQ account -- hand-reviewed, invite within 24-48h -- pulls South Dakota 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 ->Hail history in South Dakota
South Dakota averages 50 reported hail days a year across 17 years of NOAA archive, about 15 of them carrying hail 2″ or larger -- the size that routinely totals roofs. Major metros watched here: Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen.
When it hails in South Dakota
South Dakota's busiest hail month is July, with 244 of its 851 hail days on record. May through August holds 738 of them, 87% of the record.
| Month | Hail days since 2010 |
|---|---|
| March | 5 |
| April | 32 |
| May | 100 |
| June | 213 |
| July | 244 |
| August | 181 |
| September | 69 |
| October | 7 |
Top South Dakota counties by hail frequency
| County | Hail days since 2010 | Largest stone |
|---|---|---|
| Pennington | 228 | 4.50″ |
| Custer | 161 | 4.25″ |
| Meade | 154 | 4.00″ |
| Lawrence | 123 | 4.50″ |
| Fall River | 98 | 4.25″ |
| Harding | 86 | 4.25″ |
South Dakota hail history by county
67 South Dakota counties have at least 13 NOAA hail days on record since 2010 -- enough archive signal for a page of their own. Ordered by hail days.
Pennington County · Custer County · Meade County · Lawrence County · Fall River County · Harding County · Perkins County · Butte County · Jackson County · Brown County · Todd County · Oglala Lakota County · Lyman County · Bennett County · Dewey County · Charles Mix County · Corson County · Hand County · Stanley County · Tripp County · Haakon County · Day County · Edmunds County · McPherson County · Spink County · Jones County · Walworth County · Hutchinson County · Codington County · Yankton County · Minnehaha County · Bon Homme County · Gregory County · Beadle County · Hughes County · McCook County · Brule County · Lincoln County · Mellette County · Ziebach County · Clark County · Aurora County · Brookings County · Campbell County · Faulk County · Hamlin County · Shannon County · Hyde County · Lake County · Potter County · Union County · Roberts County · Turner County · Clay County · Sully County · Deuel County · Kingsbury County · Grant County · Davison County · Douglas County · Jerauld County · Marshall County · Moody County · Buffalo County · Sanborn County · Hanson County · Miner County
Recent South Dakota hail days
| Date | Max hail | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-11 | 1.50″ | 3 |
| 2026-09-07 | 1.25″ | 2 |
| 2026-09-05 | 1.50″ | 1 |
| 2026-09-04 | 1.50″ | 3 |
| 2026-09-01 | 2.75″ | 11 |
| 2026-08-30 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2026-08-29 | 1.75″ | 9 |
| 2026-08-27 | 1.25″ | 2 |
How to read the South Dakota map
The colored swath is NOAA's MRMS radar estimate of the largest hail in each ~1 km cell; the dots are individual SPC ground reports. Yellow is around an inch, red is 1.5 to 2″, and purple is 2″ and up -- see how hail size maps to roof damage. Click any spot on the map to see the hail history at that point, or look up a full street address on the hail history by address tool. Today's nationwide activity is on today's hail report.
Nearby states
Oklahoma · Colorado · Missouri · Minnesota · Iowa · Illinois
FAQ
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Data & method: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center reports + NOAA MRMS MESH radar, South Dakota only. Radar-indicated and observation-based -- informational only, not a guarantee of damage or a valid claim.