The biggest hailstone in the country on the 24th fell at Forbes, North Dakota — a 3-incher in a town of a few dozen people right on the South Dakota line. Big ice has a habit of landing where there's hardly anybody home to hear it.
The more useful ice was next door. Minnesota put up eight stones across the northwest, including 2-inch hits at Cass Lake and Goodridge and a 1.75 back at Cass Lake again, with smaller hail through Bemidji, Angus, Viking, and Turtle River. Minnesota also took both of the day's tornadoes, at Leonard and Middle River.
Then there's Westport. South Dakota only logged seven reports all day, but five of them came down on that one little town north of Aberdeen — a 2-incher, a 1.75, and three more around an inch — with another 2-inch stone over at Spring Creek Colony.
Five separate hail reports on one town is worth more of your attention than a single fat stone that fell once. Westport didn't take a hit, it took a beating — and a roof worked over five times in one afternoon loses granule cover across the entire slope instead of in a few isolated spots.
What people misjudge with hail is the timeline. It almost never leaks right away. A bruised mat sheds water just fine for a season or two and then gives up on some random February night, and by then the storm is ancient history and the claim window may already be shut. If ice came down on your place on the 24th, get it documented now, while the date is still easy to prove and nobody has to take your word for it.
North Dakota did most of the day's blowing, a run of gusts east of Bismarck that touched 89 mph at Wing, but the work worth driving for here is the hail: Westport and the Cass Lake country, both tight enough to canvass properly. How the states rank for hail across the whole season is on the Top States for Hail board. Scan the table below for your state, then pull up the nearest track and see what the 24th left over you.