The most recent reported hail day was 2019-06-16 -- 7 years ago, with nothing reported since. McDowell County is hit in about half the years on record. The largest stone on record here is 2 inches, a hen egg and twice the National Weather Service's 1 inch severe criterion, reported on 2019-06-16 near Rockridge.
Colored swath = NOAA MRMS radar-estimated hail size; dots = NOAA SPC reports in West Virginia. Radar-indicated, not a guarantee of damage.
The last hail here fell on 2019-06-16, around Rockridge. A free SwathIQ account -- hand-reviewed, invite within 24-48h -- pulls McDowell 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 13 separate hail days here since 2010 -- 0.8 a year over 17 years of record. Those days carry 24 separate reports between them, two or three on a typical one. 10 of those 17 years produced none at all. One year dominates the record: 2016 alone produced 3 of the 13 days. The last five years have been quieter than the long run: 0 days since 2022, against 1.1 a year before that.
2 of the 13 days reached 2 inches or more -- 15%, or about one hail day in 6, the last on 2019-06-16. Those big days do not follow the county's usual calendar: most of them fall in May, not June. Golf-ball size is rarer still: 1.75 inches or more on 3 of the 13 days.
Across the whole of West Virginia, see the West Virginia hail map and history.
Reports cluster nearest Welch -- 3 of the county's 13 hail days -- then Avondale (2) and Keystone (2).
| Place | Hail days since 2010 | Largest stone |
|---|---|---|
| Avondale | 2 | 1.75″ |
| 2 W Keystone | 2 | 1.25″ |
| Kimball | 1 | 2.00″ |
| Rockridge | 1 | 2.00″ |
| 2 N Welch | 1 | 1.75″ |
The season runs March through June: 11 of the 13 hail days on record fall in those 4 months (85%). June is the single busiest month, with 4 of them (31%). That peak closes the window: the season builds all the way to its worst month and then stops. Hail has also been reported in September and October, outside that window. Reports span 6 of the 12 calendar months; the other 6 have never produced one.
| Month | Hail days |
|---|---|
| March | 1 |
| April | 3 |
| May | 3 |
| June | 4 |
| September | 1 |
| October | 1 |
That day put 2 reports on the map, the biggest 2 inches near Rockridge. No hail day has been reported here yet this year.
| Date | Max hail | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-06-16 | 2.00″ | 2 |
| 2018-03-17 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2016-09-29 | 1.00″ | 2 |
| 2016-05-02 | 2.00″ | 6 |
| 2016-05-01 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2015-06-23 | 1.00″ | 1 |
| 2015-04-08 | 1.75″ | 3 |
| 2014-10-07 | 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 2 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, over the state line included: Wyoming County (13 hail days), Mercer County (21), Raleigh County (16) and Tazewell County, Virginia (19). McDowell County sits in between.
Wyoming County · Mercer County · Raleigh County · Tazewell County, Virginia
Back to the West Virginia hail map or the U.S. hail map.
Data & method: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center reports + NOAA MRMS MESH radar, McDowell County, West Virginia only. Radar-indicated and observation-based -- informational only, not a guarantee of damage or a valid claim.