Every year, hailstorms pound large swaths of the United States, causing billions in damage to cars, rooftops, and crops. But not all parts of the country are hit equally. In a corridor nicknamed “hail alley” – stretching from eastern Colorado through western Kansas, Nebraska, and into parts of Texas and Oklahoma – hail falls 7 to 9 days a year on average, far above the national norm.
The geography and climate of the Great Plains make the region especially vulnerable. Warm, moisture-rich air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with cold, dry air flowing off the Rockies, creating powerful updrafts capable of producing large hailstones. While dozens of counties in the Northwest and Mid-Atlantic have logged fewer than 10 hailstorms over the past 75 years, several counties in hail alley have recorded more than 1,000. A closer look at historical data reveals the counties where hail falls most often.
To determine the counties where hail is most common, Climate Crisis 247 reviewed data on historical hail storms from the NOAA. Counties were ranked based on the number of recorded hail storms within their borders from 1950 to 2024. The severity of hailstorms are based on the magnitude, or width, in inches, of recorded hail stones…