This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Dear Tom,

Where does hail occur most often in the United States?

Sue Bartollini

Dear Sue,

It’s not east to determine because reports of hail storms come mainly from urban areas. Hail is immensely costly and U.S. annual damage often exceeds $2 billion. In North America, hail occurs most frequently to the east of the Rocky Mountains from Alberta, Canada, south to eastern New Mexico, but within that huge area Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas experience hail most frequently. Insurance companies have dubbed the area where Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska meet as “Hail Alley.” National Weather Service statistics indicate Cheyenne, Wyoming, with an average of nine days of hail per year, as the “hail capital” of the United States. Compare Chicago’s annual average: two days.