StormProof → hail seasons → Charlotte → 1998
Charlotte hail season 1998
27 NWS-recorded hail reports ≥1″ within 35 miles, across 11 storm days, max 4.50". Every one of those reports is a dated, located, citable official record — the context behind this market's 1998 claim volume.
Biggest storm days (1998, final record)
| Date | ≥1″ reports | Max hail | Areas named in the record |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 7, 1998 | 5 | 4.50" | CABARRUS, ROWAN |
| June 3, 1998 | 4 | 1.75" | LINCOLN, MECKLENBURG |
| May 27, 1998 | 3 | 1.00" | YORK, IREDELL |
| March 20, 1998 | 3 | 2.00" | LANCASTER, MECKLENBURG, CABARRUS |
| June 10, 1998 | 2 | 1.75" | UNION, IREDELL |
“Softball size hail, very unusual in the Southeast, fell through a roof of at least one home in Kannapolis and damaged numerous vehicles. A damage estimate was not available at the time of this writing.”
— NWS event narrative, May 7, 1998 (NCEI Storm Events)
When it fell
Jan 2 · Mar 3 · Apr 4 · May 10 · Jun 8
Wind context: the record also holds 72 thunderstorm-wind events ≥50 kt (≈58 mph, the NWS severe criterion) in this radius for 1998 — relevant where the dispute is wind vs hail causation.
Working a Charlotte claim from 1998?
These are aggregates. A claim file needs the per-address record: every recorded event within 1, 3 and 10 miles of the property, distances, official narratives, and citations an adjuster can check line by line. That's the report — generated in seconds, hosted on HailEvidence (the neutral evidence surface), formatted as an insurance-appeal attachment.
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Provenance
Final counts: NCEI Storm Events Database, file vintage c20260527, hail events with recorded magnitude ≥1.00″ and point coordinates within 35 miles of the Charlotte anchor. NWS records are point and path observations. The absence of a nearby report does NOT prove that no hail fell at this address — it means no observation was logged nearby. A report of nearby hail documents the event; it does not by itself prove damage to a specific structure. Spotted an error? Email the address on our terms page and we correct against the source.