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What Your Roof's Hazard Exposure Means for a Solar Spec

36,259 damaging hail reports and 19,246 severe wind reports, 2021-2025, normalised by land area.

Panels are hail-tested against a one-inch ice ball. Whether that matters where you live is a measurable question, and the answer is not the one most people assume — the state with the most hail events is not the state with the most hail, once you account for how much land there is to hit.

What 36,259 storm reports show

Ranked by events per 10,000 square miles per year, Oklahoma leads the country at 67.76 damaging hail reports — not Texas, which records the most events in raw count (6,086) but ranks #7 once its size is accounted for. California, the largest rooftop solar market in America, sits at 0.36 — roughly 188 times lower than Oklahoma. Hail is a specification question in a minority of states and close to irrelevant in the biggest solar markets.

Last updated September 3, 2026. Data as of 5 September 2026.

State hazard reading

From 36,259 NOAA hail reports and 19,246 severe wind reports, 2021-2025.

— Hail exposure

— What to ask for

— Damaging hail

— Severe thunderstorm wind

— National rank

— Hail at 2 inches or more

Storm reports normalised by land area. Not a hazard model and not an insurance rating.

NOAA publishes the reports; the rate and rank are HyreSolar calculations. HyreSolar does not sell panels.

How to read your exposure

The county counts shown here are storm reports, not a hazard model. NOAA logs what was observed and reported, which depends on where people live and how active the local spotter network is. A thinly populated county under-reports. That makes this dataset excellent for comparing well-populated states and unreliable for concluding anything about an empty one.

Normalising by land area is our calculation, not NOAA's, and it changes the ranking completely. Texas records 6,086 damaging hail reports against Oklahoma's 2,324 — but Texas is more than twice the size. Per unit of land, Oklahoma is the more exposed place to put a roof. Raw counts measure how big a state is as much as how stormy it is.

The output is a question to ask, not a product to buy. A high reading means the hail rating and the mounting wind rating belong in your written specification. It does not mean you need a premium panel, and anyone using a hazard figure to upsell you a specific product has inverted the purpose of the number.

High exposure — top 10 statesHail rating and mounting wind rating both belong in the written spec. Ask what the panel is certified to and what the racking is rated to, and get both in the contract.

Moderate — ranks 11 to 25Worth asking about the hail rating. It is rarely the binding constraint on the design, but it is a fair question and a competent installer answers it easily.

Low or very low — ranks 26 and belowHail is unlikely to drive your specification. Wind rating, roof attachment and flashing detail matter considerably more, and that is where the questions should go.

How to use this calculator

Every input below is a number you can find, not one you have to guess. This is where each one comes from.

01

Pick your state

The dataset covers the 50 states and the District of Columbia, because the storm reports and the land areas behind it are US only.

Where to find it Nowhere — just select it. Note that state is a coarse unit for a hazard that varies enormously within a state, which is covered in the limits.
02

Read the rank before the rate

The rate is events per 10,000 square miles per year. The rank tells you where that sits nationally, which is the more useful framing for a decision.

Where to find it Both are in the output. A rank in the top 10 is a genuine signal; a rank in the 40s means hail should not be shaping your purchase.
03

Check the share of reports at 2 inches or more

One inch is the certification threshold. Two inches is well beyond it. A state with a high share of very large hail is a different proposition from one with many marginal events.

Where to find it The output line showing the split. In the top hail states this share runs to roughly a sixth of all reports.
04

Take the wind rank seriously if it is high and the hail rank is not

They are different hazards with different remedies. Wind is answered by attachment and racking rating; hail is answered by panel certification.

Where to find it The output gives both ranks. Several states rank far higher for wind than for hail, and the spec conversation should follow whichever is higher.
05

Turn the reading into a written question

The entire value of this tool is converting a vague worry into a specific, answerable request in a contract.

Where to find it Your proposal. Ask for the panel hail certification and the racking wind rating in writing. A competent installer supplies both without difficulty.
06

Do not stop here if the reading is low

A low hail rank does not mean the roof is fine. Attachment quality, flashing and roof age cause far more solar-related roof problems than hail does in most of the country.

Where to find it Our roof leak and re-roofing pieces cover what actually goes wrong.

How this calculator works

Count damaging hail

Storm Events reports of type Hail with a measured magnitude of 1.00 inch or more, 2021-2025. One inch is the IEC 61215 hail test diameter, which is why it is the threshold.

Count severe wind separately

Thunderstorm Wind reports at 58 knots or more. A different hazard answered by a different part of the specification.

Normalise by land area

Divide by state land area from the Census 2024 county gazetteer, then by five years. Reported as events per 10,000 square miles per year.

Rank against the other 50

Position in the national distribution, which is more decision-useful than an absolute rate nobody has intuition for.

The formula, in full

rate = events (2021-2025) ÷ 5 years ÷ (state land area in sq mi ÷ 10,000). Hail counts reports with magnitude ≥ 1.00 in; the large-hail subset counts ≥ 2.00 in; wind counts Thunderstorm Wind reports ≥ 58 kt.

A worked example, start to finish

The comparison that shows why normalising matters: the state with the most damaging hail reports against the state with the highest density of them, over 2021-2025.

Inputs

Texas — hail reports ≥ 1 inch: 6,086
Texas — land area: 261,259 sq mi
Texas — rate: 46.59 per 10k sq mi/yr (rank #7)
Oklahoma — hail reports ≥ 1 inch: 2,324
Oklahoma — land area: 68,597 sq mi
Oklahoma — rate: 67.76 per 10k sq mi/yr (rank #1)
California — rate: 0.36 per 10k sq mi/yr (rank #48)

Result

Oklahoma is roughly 188× California

Texas records 2.6× as many damaging hail reports as Oklahoma and is the state most people would name. Per unit of land it ranks #7, because it is more than twice the size. The practical consequence sits in the third figure: California, which installs more rooftop solar than any other state, has a hail rate of 0.36 — and recorded 0 reports at 2 inches or more in five years across the whole state. For most Californian homeowners, hail is not a specification question at all.

How the answer moves

Highest and lowest hail density, computed from 36,259 NOAA reports over 2021-2025. Every figure comes from the dataset behind this page.

State	Hail reports ≥1"	≥2"	Hail per 10k sq mi/yr	Wind per 10k sq mi/yr	Hail rank
Oklahoma	2,324	393	67.76	33.91	#1
Kansas	2,580	377	63.11	36.86	#2
Nebraska	2,309	416	60.12	23.38	#3
Missouri	1,777	232	51.7	20.02	#4
Iowa	1,390	169	49.77	31.98	#5
Illinois	1,348	131	48.57	62.18	#6
Texas	6,086	1,207	46.59	14.57	#7
New Hampshire	186	2	41.55	4.91	#8
Alaska	3	0	0.01	0	#51
Nevada	16	0	0.29	1.44	#50
Hawaii	1	0	0.31	0	#49
California	28	0	0.36	0.65	#48
Oregon	33	1	0.69	0.31	#47

The gap is not marginal. Oklahoma at 67.76 against Alaska at 0.01 is a factor of roughly 6776. Note also that hail and wind ranks diverge sharply — several states in the hail top eight rank far lower for wind, and the reverse holds elsewhere, which is why the two are reported separately rather than blended into one score.

What moves this number most

Ranked. A proposal can change any of these without saying anything untrue, so these are the inputs to check first.

Where you are, by a very large margin

Hail density varies by more than two orders of magnitude across the states in this dataset. No specification decision in solar is as geographically determined as this one.

Land area, which is why raw counts mislead

A large state accumulates more reports simply by being large. Texas tops the raw count and ranks #7 by density. Any hail ranking that does not normalise is partly a map of state sizes.

Reporting density

These are observed reports. Population and spotter-network coverage shape them, so a well-populated state looks stormier than an empty one with identical weather. This biases the dataset in a known direction and cannot be corrected from the data alone.

The 1-inch threshold

Chosen because IEC 61215 hail testing uses a 25 mm ice ball. Counting all hail regardless of size would drown the signal in reports of pea hail that threaten nothing.

The five-year window

2021-2025 is recent enough to reflect current reporting practice and short enough that a single extreme season moves a small state's rate noticeably. Read small-state figures with that in mind.

What is deliberately absent

Tornado reports, hurricane wind, snow load, wildfire, seismic, and any within-state variation. A state average says nothing about whether your particular county sits on a hail alley.

Common mistakes with this calculation

Using a raw event count to compare states

The single most common error, and the reason this page exists. Texas has the most reports and is not the most exposed place per unit of land. Density is the comparable figure; count is a proxy for size.

Treating a state figure as a property figure

Hail alleys are regional and sometimes county-scale. A state average is a screening signal for whether to ask a question, never an assessment of your roof.

Reading low exposure as no roof risk

Hail is one hazard among several and, in most of the country, not the one that causes solar-related roof problems. Attachment quality, flashing and roof age cause far more.

Letting a hazard number sell you a product

A high reading is a reason to ask what the panel and racking are rated to and to get it in writing. It is not a reason to accept a premium upsell justified by a statistic the salesperson brought.

Assuming reports equal damage

A report means hail of that size was observed somewhere in the county. It does not mean roofs were damaged, and it certainly does not mean your roof was under it.

Ignoring the wind rank because the hail rank is low

They are separate hazards with separate remedies and they do not track each other. Read both ranks; the spec conversation should follow whichever is higher.

Important: this is a planning estimate

Storm REPORTS, not a hazard model. Reporting depends on population and spotter networks, so thinly populated areas are systematically undercounted.
State-level only. Hail exposure varies enormously within a state and this says nothing about your county, let alone your roof.
A 2021-2025 window. Small states have volatile rates over five years and a single extreme season moves them noticeably.
Normalising by land area is a HyreSolar calculation, not a NOAA published figure. NOAA publishes the reports; the rate and the rank are ours.
A report means hail of that size was observed in the county, not that damage occurred and not that any roof was struck.
Excludes tornado, hurricane wind, snow load, wildfire and seismic exposure entirely.
Not an insurance rating, not an actuarial figure, and no substitute for a survey of your own roof.

Questions this calculator answers

Which state has the worst hail for solar?

By density of damaging hail reports, Oklahoma: 67.76 events of one inch or more per 10,000 square miles per year across 2021-2025. By raw count it is Texas with 6,086 reports, but Texas is more than twice the size and ranks #7 once that is accounted for. Which answer is right depends on whether you are asking about a state or about a roof — for a roof, density is the relevant figure.

Are solar panels rated for hail?

Panels certified to IEC 61215 are tested against a 25 mm — one inch — ice ball at a specified velocity, which is why this analysis counts reports at one inch and above. That is a test standard, not a guarantee, and events above two inches are outside it entirely. In the highest-exposure states roughly a sixth of all damaging hail reports are at two inches or more.

Should hail change what panels I buy?

In the top ten states it is a fair question to put in writing: ask what the panel is certified to and what the racking is rated to. Elsewhere it is unlikely to be the binding constraint, and a salesperson using a hazard statistic to justify a premium product in a low-exposure state has the argument backwards.

Why normalise by land area rather than use the count?

Because a raw count is partly a measurement of how big a state is. Texas accumulates more reports than Oklahoma largely by covering more ground. If you are deciding about one roof, the question is how often damaging hail falls on a given patch of land, and that is a density. We say clearly that this normalisation is ours — NOAA publishes the reports, not the rate.

Does California really have almost no hail?

In the reported record, close to it. California logged 28 damaging hail reports across the entire state over five years, of which 0 were two inches or more, giving a rate of 0.36 — rank #48 of 51. Given that California installs more rooftop solar than any other state, this is the single most consequential finding on the page: for most of the American solar market, hail is not the risk it is often presented as.

My state ranks low. Does that mean my roof is safe?

No. It means hail is unlikely to be what shapes your specification. Roof age, attachment quality and flashing detail cause far more solar-related roof problems in most of the country, and none of them appear in this dataset. A low hail rank is a reason to redirect the questions, not to stop asking them.

Why are hail and wind reported separately?

Because they are different hazards with different remedies and their rankings do not track each other. Hail is answered by panel certification; wind is answered by racking rating and attachment. Several states rank far higher on one than the other, and blending them into a single score would hide exactly the information you need.

Is this an insurance risk rating?

No, and it should not be used as one. Insurers model at property level using far more than five years of county-scale reports. This is a screening signal for a specification conversation. What your policy covers once panels are installed is a separate question, covered in our storm damage insurance piece.

How current is this data?

The underlying NOAA Storm Events detail files for 2021-2025 were retrieved on 2026-09-05. NOAA revises these files as reports are verified, so counts for recent years can move slightly. Land areas are from the Census 2024 national county gazetteer.

The research behind these numbers

Every assumption in this calculator is argued from primary sources somewhere in our research library. These are the pages that matter for this one.

Solar and storm damage insurance What a homeowner policy does and does not cover once panels are on the roof — the question this reading should prompt.
Panel weight and roof loading The structural half of the question. Wind uplift and dead load are answered by attachment, not by panel choice.
Re-roofing before solar Roof age causes far more solar-related problems than hail does in most states.
Roof leaks after solar What actually goes wrong at the attachment points, and who is liable.
Roof readiness check Screen the roof itself before the hazard question is worth asking.
Workmanship warranty Which of the three warranties covers penetration and attachment failures.

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Written and audited by

HyreSolar Research

Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking

We are a research desk, not a sales floor. We read the statute, the tariff, the code section, the federal filing or the manufacturer data sheet ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it. Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. That rule has cost us whole sections, and it is the reason the rest can be trusted.

160: primary sources read and cited
220: figures with a retrieval date
115: federal and state government sources
66: researched pages published

How this desk works

Primary sources only. Statutes from the legislature’s own publishing system, federal data from the agency that collects it, code text from the adopted edition, manufacturer claims from the data sheet. We do not cite an article that cites a source; we go and read the source.
Every figure carries its provenance. A named document and the date we retrieved it, so you can check it and so you know how old it is. Retrieval dates are not decoration: an EIA rate from May is a different fact from an EIA rate from August.
We publish what we could not verify. Every research page carries a section naming the things we tried to establish and could not, and why. A paywalled standard, a state website that refused the request, a manufacturer that publishes no figure at all.
We separate measurement from modelling from our own reasoning, and label which is which on the page. A laboratory measurement, an assumption inside a modelling tool and our own inference are three different kinds of claim and they are never presented as one.
We do not sell solar, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favourable mention. Nobody buys a position on this site.

Data as of 5 September 2026. Authorship on this site is organisational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.

Data and sources

Storm Events Database, detail files d2021–d2025 (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, retrieved 2026-09-05. Source for all event counts. 36,259 hail reports at 1 inch or more, 4,892 at 2 inches or more, and 19,246 thunderstorm-wind reports at 58 knots or more, across the 50 states and DC.)
2024 National Gazetteer — Counties (U.S. Census Bureau, retrieved 2026-09-05. Land area in square miles, summed from counties to states, used as the denominator for every rate on this page.)
IEC 61215 — terrestrial photovoltaic modules, design qualification and type approval (International Electrotechnical Commission, retrieved 2026-09-05. Basis for the 1-inch (25 mm) hail threshold used to define a damaging event in this analysis.)