A barrier island doesn't usually headline a national storm map, but the 16th was a wind day and its loudest hit landed where we rarely look. An 84 mph gust tore across Surf City on Long Beach Island — the hardest wind reported anywhere in the country that day. New Jersey put up 13 reports, most of them gusts stacked down the island and across the mainland behind it.
Montana matched Jersey report-for-report at 13, but split its half between hail and wind. A supercell worked the middle of the state around Lavina and Roundup and dropped the day's biggest stone — a 1.75-inch hailstone at Lavina — with a line of gusts trailing it. Different weather, same body count on the tally.
The twitchiest corner was North Dakota, which put down four tornadoes around Bremen and the central counties. Prairie spin-ups, the kind that cross one section line and chew up a shelterbelt and a machine shed without ever making the evening news.
The one worth a hard look is the Jersey Shore. Long Beach Island is wall-to-wall roofs — year-round homes, rentals, everything packed shoulder to shoulder — and 84 mph coastal wind doesn't need hail to do damage. It pries up shingle tabs on the seaward face, lifts step flashing, and finds every seam a nailer got lazy on. If your place caught that blow, walk the windward side and look up: cocked tabs, a run of missing ridge cap, a corner of flashing standing proud. The roof can read fine from the driveway and still be letting go along the edge you can't see from the ground.
Out in Montana, 1.75-inch ice is past the cosmetic line — it bruises the mat and knocks granules loose whether or not the shingle looks torn — but Lavina is ranch country, and a hit like that can sit unlooked-at for a season. If you're anywhere that central-Montana cell tracked, it earns a look while the dents still line up with an obvious storm.
For crews, this one's a rarity: the cleanest canvass on the board is a dense, high-value coastal wind pocket on LBI, not the usual Plains hail run. Montana's stone is fresh work but spread out, and the Dakota tornado damage is house-by-house. Where the season's real hail keeps stacking stays on the Top States for Hail board. The full state list sits below — run down it and find your own town to see whether the 16th sent anything across your roof.