Kansas City Hail: May 26, 2016

The biggest reports measured 2 inches. What set it apart was volume. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center logged reports of 1 inch or larger near 19 of the 20 cities on file. Four of those cities each logged 15 or more.

If your car was parked in the middle or north of the metro that Thursday, the record shows a crowd of reports near you. For four cities, no golf ball day on file brought more. Here is where it piled up, where it thinned out and what the date can do for you.

Thickest in the middle and north

Gladstone and Kansas City, Missouri, each logged 16 reports. Kansas City, Kansas, and Parkville each logged 15. Raytown followed with 13.

For Gladstone, Parkville, Raytown and Kansas City, Missouri, that was the busiest golf ball day in each city's file.

Those big counts overlap. One report can count for several cities when their circles cross, and these four cities sit close together. So read 16 and 15 as a dense patch of sightings around the core, not as separate storms.

The largest stones, 2 inches, came near Grain Valley and Independence, east of downtown. Everywhere else, the top size was golf ball or smaller.

Golf ball size, 1.75 inches and up, was reported near 11 cities in the record. Blue Springs and Lee's Summit were among them.

All eight Kansas cities logged hail. Kansas City, Kansas, Merriam and Prairie Village reached golf ball size. Olathe, Overland Park, Lenexa, Shawnee and Leawood topped out at 1.5 inches.

The south edge caught the least. Grandview and Raymore logged one report each, at 1 inch. Belton logged none, the only gap among the 20.

North of the river, the count did not hold everywhere. Liberty logged only three reports, none above 1 inch.

Outside the 20, Platte City logged five reports, topping out at golf ball size. Bonner Springs reached 1.5 inches and Gardner 1.25.

A month after another wide day

Exactly one month earlier, on April 26, 2016, hail had also reached 19 of the 20 cities. No other year in the record holds two days that wide.

The two days did not hit the same set of cities. April 26 skipped Kansas City, Missouri. May 26 skipped Belton. The earlier day topped out at golf ball size, the later one at 2 inches.

The timing fits the season. May is the busiest month for reports in most cities on file, including Gladstone, Parkville and both Kansas Cities. This day landed near the end of it.

A third 2016 day, August 24, reached 11 cities. That puts three 2016 dates among the 25 widest hail days on file. Only 2019 has more, with four.

Count is where this day leads. This record breaks out eight storm days city by city. On none of the other seven did more than three cities reach 15 or more reports.

The four days that reached 19 cities all had their own shape. This one had the heaviest counts near the core of the metro. The Kansas City hail history page lists all of the widest days.

Smaller stones, many dents

Golf ball size hail is big enough to dent a car. A day with many reports of it means many chances for a hit.

Still, 16 reports near a city is a count of sightings, not of dents. Some cars near Gladstone that day may have come through clean. Others may have taken plenty. Only a look at the car settles which one is yours.

The panels that face the sky, the roof, the hood and the trunk lid, tend to collect the most. On a car from a day like this, the questions are how many dents each panel took and whether the paint held. That is exactly what an estimate counts. What happens at a hail estimate walks through the list you get.

Putting the date to work

Your carrier asks for a date of loss. This page can help you settle on one if the car was near one of these cities on that Thursday.

Mind the clock, too. SPC dates its reports in Central Standard Time. In late May, local clocks run an hour ahead of that. A storm logged just after midnight your time would carry the previous day's date in the file.

Keep the limit in view. Each report here was logged within 10 miles of a city's center point. A report near your city is not a dent on your car. The record cannot show which streets the hail crossed, and it proves no damage.

What carries a claim is the car. That means photos of every panel and a dent count to go with them.

A storm from 2016 is years back. Your policy sets the reporting window, and your carrier decides what it will still open. Ask it what it needs before you plan around this date.

Call for a free assessment, and you get the count panel by panel, wherever the car is parked.