Buffalo County was hit as recently as 2026-07-02, 29 days ago. Buffalo County is hit in about half the years on record. 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 2026-07-02 near Gann Valley.
Colored swath = NOAA MRMS radar-estimated hail size; dots = NOAA SPC reports in South Dakota. Radar-indicated, not a guarantee of damage.
The last hail here fell on 2026-07-02, around Gann Valley. A free SwathIQ account -- hand-reviewed, invite within 24-48h -- pulls Buffalo County addresses inside a hail swath above your size threshold into a door-knock list you can export, scoped to your approved markets.
Get free access Check an addressOur US-based call center calls the homeowners in this storm and books roof inspections straight onto your calendar. You work the storm; we fill the schedule. We dial -- you do not have to knock a single door.
See call-center options ->NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has logged 17 separate hail days here since 2010 -- 1.0 a year over 17 years of record. They carry 27 reports in total: most hail days here are logged from a single spot. 8 of those 17 years produced none at all. One year dominates the record: 2012 alone produced 4 of the 17 days. The last five years have been quieter than the long run: 3 days since 2022, against 1.2 a year before that.
Most hail here stays under 2 inches: only 1 of the 17 days on record passed it, 6%, the last on 2026-07-02. Those big days do not follow the county's usual calendar: most of them fall in July, not June. 5 of the 17 days reached golf-ball size, 1.75 inches or bigger.
Across the whole of South Dakota, see the South Dakota hail map and history.
Reports cluster nearest Gann Valley -- 11 of the county's 17 hail days -- then Miller (2), Danforth (2) and Shelby (2). That one town is named on 65% of them.
| Place | Hail days since 2010 | Largest stone |
|---|---|---|
| 7 WNW Gann Valley | 2 | 2.75″ |
| 7 SSW Gann Valley | 1 | 3.00″ |
| 12 Nnw Gann Valley | 1 | 1.75″ |
| 15 Nw Gann Valley | 1 | 1.75″ |
| 15 Wsw Gann Valley | 1 | 1.75″ |
The season runs May through August: 15 of the 17 hail days on record fall in those 4 months (88%). June is the single busiest month, with 6 of them (35%). That peak sits inside the window rather than at either end. Hail has also been reported in April and September, outside that window. Reports span 6 of the 12 calendar months; the other 6 have never produced one.
| Month | Hail days |
|---|---|
| April | 1 |
| May | 3 |
| June | 6 |
| July | 4 |
| August | 2 |
| September | 1 |
That day put 3 reports on the map, the biggest 3 inches near Gann Valley. 1 hail day has already been reported this year.
| Date | Max hail | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-02 | 3.00″ | 3 |
| 2025-07-15 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2022-04-22 | 1.75″ | 1 |
| 2020-08-30 | 1.00″ | 2 |
| 2020-06-25 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2017-06-13 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2017-06-10 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2016-05-26 | 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 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: Jerauld County (19 hail days), Brule County (34) and Hand County (47). Every one of them takes more hail than Buffalo County.
Jerauld County · Brule County · Hand County
Back to the South Dakota hail map or the U.S. hail map.
Data & method: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center reports + NOAA MRMS MESH radar, Buffalo County, South Dakota only. Radar-indicated and observation-based -- informational only, not a guarantee of damage or a valid claim.