Kansas City Hail: March 6, 2017

Golf ball hail rarely reaches the whole metro at once. On this Monday in early March, it nearly did. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center put reports of 1 inch or larger near 19 of the 20 cities in this record. Golf ball size, 1.75 inches and up, was reported near 18 of them. No other day on file matches that.

If you live in any city in the record except Belton or Raymore, golf ball size hail was reported near you that day. Here is where it ran biggest, how early it came and what the date can and cannot do for a claim.

Baseball size on the west side

The largest reports, 2.75 inches, came near Lenexa and Shawnee. That is baseball size on SPC's scale. Bonner Springs, one of the cities outside the 20, logged the same size.

Lenexa logged 12 reports, its busiest golf ball day on file. Shawnee logged 13. Merriam logged 12, and Kansas City, Kansas, added 10.

Johnson County filled in behind them. Overland Park logged five reports and Leawood four, both topping out at 2 inches.

Every one of the eight Kansas cities reached golf ball size that day. On April 3, 2011, the first day in the record to reach 19 cities, one Kansas city logged nothing at all.

On the Missouri side, the top size was 2 inches. Raytown logged 10 reports. Blue Springs, farther east, logged seven. Independence and Kansas City, Missouri, logged 9 each.

Golf ball hail spread wide from there. It reached north to Liberty, Gladstone and Parkville. It reached south to Grandview and Lee's Summit. Olathe and Prairie Village logged it too, with stones to 2 inches.

Two cities fell short. Raymore logged one report, at 1 inch. Belton logged none, the only one of the 20 left out.

Outside the 20, Gardner and Leavenworth each logged two reports, topping out at golf ball size.

The earliest wide day on file

Of the 25 widest hail days in the record, this one comes earliest in the calendar year. March holds five of the 25. The next earliest is March 13, 2024, when 3.5 inch hail was reported on the Kansas side.

Four days in the record reached 19 cities. Among them, the 2.75 inch top size here trails only April 3, 2011, at 3 inches.

The golf ball count is where this day leads. April 3, 2011, comes second, with 16 cities. No other day reached more than 11.

It also had company. On February 28, 2017, six days before, golf ball size hail was reported near Blue Springs and Grain Valley. Harrisonville logged nine reports that day, topping out at 2.5 inches. Then on March 29, 2017, hail of 1 inch or larger was reported near 10 cities.

So 2017 put two of the 25 widest days in one March. The full list sits on the Kansas City hail history page.

What golf ball hail leaves

Sixteen cities in the record topped out between 1.75 and 2 inches that day. Hail in that range often dents a panel without breaking the paint. That is the work PDR is made for.

Near Lenexa and Shawnee, the stones ran bigger. At baseball size, paint can chip and a crease can turn sharp. Those dents may not come out fully, and you hear which ones at the estimate, before any work starts.

Two storms, one car

In Blue Springs and Grain Valley, the record shows golf ball reports on both February 28 and March 6. A car parked outside there that week may carry dents from two dates.

Both cities also logged hail of 1 inch or larger on March 29. That puts three hail dates within 30 days near the same two cities.

Each extra date makes a claim harder to sort out. Your carrier will want to know which date the damage came from. Dents from two storms on the same panel can be hard to split after the fact. Read how long can you wait to fix hail damage for what a second storm does to the timeline.

The date, and its limits

The date of loss is the first thing a claim asks for. This page can help you name it.

The clock is simple on this one. SPC dates its reports in Central Standard Time, and daylight time did not start until March 12, 2017. So the file's date matches the calendar you lived that week.

The record cannot prove the damage. A report here means hail was logged within 10 miles of a city's center point, not on your driveway. One report can count for more than one city, so the city counts above overlap. Only the car shows what it took.

So pair the date with evidence. Take photos of every panel. Then have the dents counted, panel by panel. A loss from 2017 is not recent, so your policy's reporting terms matter. Ask your carrier what it needs for a date that old.

Call for a free assessment to get that count where the car is parked.