Kansas City Hail: September 18, 2010

The biggest hail in this record did not come in spring. It came on a Saturday in September, and it landed on the Missouri side. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center logged stones of 5.5 inches near five cities east of downtown. Within the 20 cities, nothing else comes close. The next largest report measured 3.5 inches.

If your car lived east of downtown in 2010, this is a date worth knowing. Here is how the day played out, how it ranks and what it can and cannot tell your carrier.

East of downtown, the giants

Eleven of the 20 cities logged hail of 1 inch or larger that day. Ten of those eleven are in Missouri.

The 5.5 inch reports came near Blue Springs, Grain Valley, Independence, Lee's Summit and Raytown. Those five are neighbors on the east side of the metro.

Independence logged 16 reports, the most of any city that day. Blue Springs and Grain Valley logged 14 each. For all three, no golf ball day on file brought more reports nearby.

Farther north and west, the top size dropped to 2.5 inches. Gladstone, Liberty, Kansas City, Missouri, and Parkville all logged stones that size. Parkville had just one report, but it was a big one.

Down south, Grandview logged a single report at 1 inch. Belton and Raymore logged nothing at that size.

The Kansas side nearly missed it. Prairie Village logged one report at 1 inch. Kansas City, Kansas, Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, Shawnee, Merriam and Leawood logged none.

Three cities outside the 20 logged hail too. Leavenworth and Harrisonville each had two reports, topping out at golf ball size. Platte City had one, at 1 inch.

Two inches clear of the rest

Five cities in this record list 5.5 inches as their largest stone. All five got it on this one day. No other city among the 20 has a largest stone above 3.5 inches.

SPC calls 2.75 inches baseball size. These stones measured double that.

That 3.5 inch mark belongs to March 13, 2024, and it sits on the Kansas side. Even counting the six cities outside the 20, nothing tops it. Harrisonville comes nearest, with 5.0 inches on July 17, 2023, and Leavenworth and Platte City each logged 4.5 inches on August 19, 2011.

In reach, though, this day was nothing special. Eleven cities is the most common count among the 25 widest hail days on file. Nine of those days landed on exactly 11. Four reached 19.

So September 18, 2010, stands out for how big the stones got where they landed.

Even on the east side, the count was not always a record. Lee's Summit logged 9 reports, fewer than on April 3, 2011. Raytown logged 8, fewer than on May 26, 2016.

The widest days and every city's own numbers sit on the Kansas City hail history page.

One day, a whole September

The month matters here. In each of those five cities, this single day accounts for all but one of the September reports logged from 2010 to 2025. Take the date away, and each city has one September report left. That one came on September 16, 2025, and SPC's 2025 file can still be revised.

The big stones follow the same pattern. For Blue Springs, Grain Valley, Independence and Raytown, every baseball size report in the file came on this day. Lee's Summit is the exception, with baseball size reports on two other days as well.

So when you read that the east side gets September hail, much of that reputation rests on one Saturday.

What stones this size do

PDR works when the paint is whole and the metal can be massaged back into shape. Stones this size can crack paint, stretch metal and break glass. PDR may not remove dents like that completely.

You should hear that at the estimate, panel by panel, not halfway through the repair. If a car from that day was never fixed, the list of what will not come out matters as much as the count. Can PDR fix every hail dent covers those limits in detail.

Naming the date for a claim

Your carrier will want a date of loss. If your car was parked near one of these cities on September 18, 2010, this date is a candidate.

Be clear on what the record is. A report counts here when it was logged within 10 miles of a city's center point. It does not place hail on your street. It does not prove a single dent on your car.

The car itself is the evidence. Photos of each panel show what it took. A dent count turns those photos into a number you can talk about.

A storm this old raises a timing question as well. Your policy sets how soon a loss must be reported. Ask your carrier whether a loss from 2010 can still be opened, and what proof it wants.

Get the count before that call. Call for a free assessment, and the crew checks every panel where the car sits.