Twenty-four reports is a slow day by any measure, but the 5th was the first in over a week to put a genuinely damaging stone on the ground. A 2-incher came down at Emporia, Kansas — the biggest hail reported anywhere in the country since July 28th.
Kansas owned the ice. Seven of the day's eleven hail reports were in-state and they ran up the Flint Hills: 1.75 inches at Severy, another 1.25 back at Emporia, an inch at Melvern, and a 1.25-inch stone at Bucyrus down on the edge of the Kansas City suburbs. A 60 mph gust came through Emporia with the hail.
Two inches is where the conversation changes. Below it you're arguing about bruising and granule loss; at two the stone cracks the mat outright, dents gutters and downspouts, and splits older shingles that had already gone brittle. Emporia has enough housing under it to make that worth somebody's time — the most workable thing on the board in ten days.
The rest was scattered and small. Arizona's monsoon threw gusts and inch-hail across the southeast corner through Bisbee, Tucson, Sierra Vista, and Elfrida, and Missouri logged wind at Unionville and down through Pleasant Hill and Belton south of Kansas City. Lone inch-stones turned up at Folsom, New Mexico and Kenton, Oklahoma, out in the far corners.
If you've been sitting out a slow stretch, Emporia and the Severy corridor are where the work is right now. Where the year's hail totals stand by state is on the Top States for Hail board. Run the table below and find your county to see what the 5th actually dropped near you.