Storm Record
The April 2026 Hailstorm: What It Did To Our Roofs
Four days in April. Hail to 2.75 inches on Watertown and four inches east of Madison, 81 mph winds, and tornadoes in four counties. What the record shows, and what it means for your roof now.
· Reviewed by Kevin Strauss
The Storm
The April 2026 Hail Storm In Wisconsin: What Fell, Where, And What It Means For Your Roof
The April 2026 hail storm in Wisconsin ran 13–April 17: 2.75-inch hail on Watertown on the 14th, four inches at Burke east of Madison, 81 mph at Waterloo, tornadoes in four counties. Any roof under it has bruising that will not show inside for years, and the statutory clock under § 631.83 runs to April 2027.
Below: the week day by day, the two storm records with every report in the Weather Service’s words, Watertown’s own timeline, and what to do about a roof that has not been looked at since.
April 13–17, 2026
What The April 2026 Storms Brought, Day By Day
The season had already opened. On April 2, 2026 two-inch hail fell at Whitewater. But the week that mattered began late on Monday April 13, when a line of storms came across after midnight with straight-line wind rather than hail: 81 mph at Waterloo and at Cambridge in Jefferson County, 81 mph again at DeForest, East Bristol and the Madison airport, 75 mph at Fox Lake and Rubicon in Dodge County. A brief tornado touched down south of Beaver Dam and went through a garage; another crossed from Dane County into Jefferson at Busseyville. Half the roof came off a church at East Bristol. A hundred-year-old barn collapsed at Albion.
Tuesday April 14 was the hail. In Watertown the Weather Service logged stones of an inch, an inch and a quarter and an inch and three quarters inside the city, 1.75 inches at Grellton just south, and 2.75 inches southeast of town at the airport — the largest ever recorded here. Waterloo and Lake Mills took an inch. Across Dane County it was worse: four inches at Burke, east of Maple Bluff, three and a half at North Madison, 3.25 at Maple Bluff, 2.75 at Monona, at the Truax airport and west of Cottage Grove, two and a half in Cottage Grove itself, two inches at Sun Prairie, Marshall, Middleton and Cross Plains. In Waukesha County, 81 mph wind and inch hail at Oconomowoc Lake and two-inch hail at Menomonee Falls.
It did not stop there. A tornado hit Delavan Lake on the 15th, and on the 17th four more went through Walworth County — Richmond, Darien, Delavan and Lyons — with another at Muskego Lake and a barn wall blown down at Richwood in Dodge County.
All of it is public. Every figure above is in the NOAA Storm Events Database, which anyone can query by county and date, and the Weather Service published its own event review of the week.
From The Record
The Two Storm Records
April 14, 2026 — the hail
Ninety-two reports across five counties, from an inch to four. Every one of them, in the Weather Service’s words, with the towns it touched and the claim deadline computed from the date.
April 13, 2026 — the wind
The overnight line that opened the week: 81 mph gusts, two tornadoes, and the structural damage that goes with them, county by county.
Storm History
What Watertown Itself Has Taken
The city’s own storm record, newest first. April 2026 sits at the top of it by some distance.
31 recorded storms since 2005 · largest hail 2.75″ · strongest gust 75 mph · NOAA
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June 10, 2026
Straight-line wind
Full record →An intense complex of thunderstorms tracked across most of southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and portions of northeast Wisconsin during the afternoon hours on June 10, 2026. Multiple measured wind gusts of 70+ MPH were reported as the storms moved across southern Wisconsin, resulting in widespread tree & power line damage. Several areas of structural damage…
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April 14, 2026
Hail
Full record →Numerous severe thunderstorms developed across southern Wisconsin during the afternoon and evening hours as a wave of low pressure moved across a stationary front over the region. Two main supercell thunderstorms developed along and north of Interstate 94 between Madison and Milwaukee, which produced softball sized hail and an EF-2 tornado. These storms would later…
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April 18, 2025
Hail
Full record →A cluster of severe thunderstorms with very large hail and heavy rain tracked along a warm front over southern WI during the morning. Numerous reports of very large hail were received, and also flash flooding in Milwaukee.
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April 15, 2023
Hail
Full record →An approaching weak low pressure area and cold front triggered scattered strong storms across southern WI. A couple reports of hail were received.
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June 13, 2022
Hail
Full record →A supercell thunderstorm formed north of a warm front and tracked east across much of southern WI. A swath of destructive hail and sporadic wind damage occurred. More specifically, vehicle, shingle, siding, gutter, and window screen damage. Short segments of tree damage also occurred. Three people drowned in Milwaukee when two men attempted to help…
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September 7, 2021
Hail
Full record →A broken line of thunderstorms along a cold front moved east to southeast across southern WI with numerous reports of large hail.
Your deadline, in dates. Twelve months from April 14, 2026 is April 14, 2027 — the statutory limit on bringing an action against your insurer for this storm under Wis. Stat. § 631.83(1)(a), counted from the day the hail fell, not the day you noticed. Your policy’s deadline to report a claim is a separate and usually shorter term; the deadline page has both clocks side by side.
Hail Does Not Leak
Why The April Hail Still Matters In September
Hail damage does not leak. That is what makes it a financial problem rather than a practical one. A stone of an inch and three quarters bruises the mat under the granules on the slopes that faced it — south and west, for this storm — and the roof looks fine from the driveway. The granules keep shedding from the bruise, the mat is exposed, and the roof fails eight or ten years before it should, long after anyone can be billed for it.
The inspection is how you find out. Half an hour, every slope walked and photographed, and a dated written report. If there is nothing, the report says so and you keep it. If there is bruising, the report is the document your claim rests on, and its date is the one that matters against a deadline.
A roof that was under both this storm and the one in 2025 has taken two seasons of damage and has one live window. That is the roof to have looked at first.
What To Do
If Your Roof Was Under It
Book the inspection
Free, half an hour, dated. It is the document everything else depends on, and you keep it whether or not you hire anyone.
Photograph the tells
Dented gutters, downspouts and vents. Granules where the downspouts drain. Torn screens. Flattened fins on the air conditioner. All visible from the ground, and all dated by your phone.
Call your insurer before any contractor
Report first. A contractor who says otherwise wants to be in the room before your adjuster is, and Wisconsin law says we cannot negotiate your claim for you in any case.
Check who knocked
A storm brings crews from out of state. The DSPS license lookup tells you in a minute whether the name on the truck holds a Wisconsin Dwelling Contractor Certification, and for how long.
April 18, 2025
And The Hail The Year Before
Watertown was hit in April 2025 as well. On April 18, 2025 hail of an inch and a quarter fell at the Watertown airport and an inch north-west of town, with the worst of that storm further south — two inches at Cold Spring, 1.75 at Milford, Busseyville and Palmyra. Twelve months from that date ran to April 2026, so its statutory window has closed. The damage it did has not gone anywhere, and a report that documents both storms on one roof is worth having when the 2026 claim is assessed.
Straight Answers
Questions About This Storm
If you are in Watertown, Waterloo, Lake Mills, Oconomowoc, Madison, Sun Prairie or Cottage Grove, the Weather Service logged hail of an inch or more within a mile or two of you on April 14, 2026. The storm record lists every report with its location, and the free inspection settles what actually landed on your roof.
No. The statutory limit on bringing an action for this storm is twelve months from April 14, 2026 — that is April 14, 2027, under Wis. Stat. § 631.83(1)(a). Your policy’s own reporting deadline is separate and usually shorter, so report to your insurer now rather than later.
Possibly, and that is the problem. Hail bruises the shingle mat without opening it; the leak comes years later. The only way to know is to have the slopes that faced the storm walked and photographed, which is what the inspection is.
Not on the doorstep. Check the name at the DSPS license lookup, ask where their shop is, and know that under Wis. Stat. § 100.65 a contractor may not offer to pay or rebate your deductible, and must give you written notice of your right to cancel if your insurer denies the claim.
Every report the Weather Service logged for that episode, in their words, sorted largest first; the towns it touched; the largest hail, strongest gust and tornado count; and the claim deadline computed from the storm’s date. It is built from the NOAA database and updated as they publish.
Related
Roofing Services After The April Storm
Hail damage repair
What 2.75-inch hail does to a shingle, the ground-level tells, and what the inspection finds that you cannot.
Storm damage repair
The claim sequence from tarp to final invoice, and Watertown’s storm record newest first.
After a hail storm
The first forty-eight hours in the order that protects the house and the claim.
Siding
Hail that bruised the roof cracked the siding on the same elevation. Why both belong on one claim.
Free Inspection
Was Your Roof Under The April Storm?
Half an hour, every slope photographed, a dated report you keep. Free, and it is the document a claim rests on.