StormProof → hail seasons → Tampa–St. Petersburg → 1998
Tampa–St. Petersburg hail season 1998
9 NWS-recorded hail reports ≥1″ within 30 miles, across 8 storm days, max 3.00". 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 16, 1998 | 2 | 1.00" | HILLSBOROUGH |
| September 6, 1998 | 1 | 1.00" | HILLSBOROUGH |
| June 29, 1998 | 1 | 1.75" | PINELLAS |
| June 27, 1998 | 1 | 1.00" | PASCO |
| May 5, 1998 | 1 | 1.75" | MANATEE |
“One inch hail was reported by a Skywarn Spotter near U.S. Highway 301 and Balm Road.”
— NWS event narrative, February 16, 1998 (NCEI Storm Events)
When it fell
Feb 3 · Mar 1 · May 2 · Jun 2 · Sep 1
Wind context: the record also holds 8 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 Tampa–St. Petersburg 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 30 miles of the Tampa–St. Petersburg 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.