How Often Does Hail Actually Hit Fairfield County, Ohio?

NOAA logged 2.12 hail days per year in Fairfield County, Ohio, 2000 to 2025 [1].

Many roofing sites claim Fairfield County gets 3 to 6 hail events a year. Some earlier pages on this site said it too. NOAA does not support that figure [1].

We pulled 26 full years of NOAA Storm Events data for four central Ohio counties. The result is smaller than the sales pitch. It is also not zero.

Below you'll find the yearly counts, the months, the hail sizes and the odds. You can also test the odds for each county.

How many hail days per year does Fairfield County get?

NOAA logged 55 hail days in Fairfield County across 2000 to 2025 [1]. That averages 2.12 days a year, with a median of 2. A hail day is a calendar date with at least one county hail report.

The range is wide. Two of 26 years had no hail day at all, 2004 and 2021 [1]. The peak came in 2011, with 6 hail days and 12 hail reports [1].

Nine years had 3 or more hail days [1]. Four had 4 or more. Fairfield logged 94 hail reports in the same window, or 3.62 a year [1].

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, Fairfield County, 2000 to 2025 [1]. Independent. Reports are not true occurrences.

We count days, not reports. One storm can file a dozen reports. Allen and Tippett (2015) studied US hail reports back to 1955 [6].

Report counts rose with storm chasers, report sources and local verification [6]. Hail days showed no national trend over the last 25 years of that study [6].

How does Fairfield compare with Licking, Pickaway and Franklin?

Franklin County averaged 3.58 hail days a year, Fairfield 2.12 (NOAA, 2000 to 2025) [1]. Licking logged 2.35 and Pickaway 0.96. Pickaway had no hail day in 11 of 26 years.

Franklin has many more people per square mile than Fairfield. That means more observers. Part of the Franklin gap reflects who is watching.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database [1]. Independent. Expected hail days and intervals are this site's own calculation.

Fairfield's total is 0.59 of Franklin's, or 55 of 93 hail days. The intervals nearly touch, at 55.1 and 57.7. Real counts cluster in bad years, so the true uncertainty is wider.

How often does hail of 1 inch or larger fall in Fairfield County?

NOAA counted 26 Fairfield hail days of 1 inch or larger, 2000 to 2025 [1]. That is 1.00 a year, with a median of 1. Eighteen of 26 years had at least one.

Only 2023 reached 3 such days [1]. The National Weather Service treats hail of 1 inch or larger as severe [4].

Most reports are small. Of 95 Fairfield hail reports in 2000 to 2026, 45 reached 1 inch [1]. That is 47%.

The median report was 0.88 inch. The largest was 2.50 inches on May 3, 2022 [1]. Six reports reached 1.75 inches or more [1].

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database [1]. Independent. Everyday comparisons are conventional size guides, not NOAA data.

Haag Engineering ran lab tests on aged shingles with frozen ice stones [11]. Haag sells forensic hail inspections, so its figures are self-reported.

Aged 3-tab fiberglass shingles: 0% of impacts damaged at 1 inch, 60% at 1.25 [11]. At 1.5 inches, 90% of impacts caused damage [11]. Aged organic 3-tab shingles showed damage in 50% of 1-inch impacts [11].

Ice stones are harder than natural hail, and each test cell held only 10 impacts. Still, 1 inch is where older, thin products begin to fail. That is why we use it as our proxy for a damaging hail day.

Which months does hail fall in Fairfield County?

July had 15 of Fairfield's 55 hail days in NOAA's 2000 to 2025 data [1]. April had 14, June 12 and May 7. May is not the peak, despite what many roofing pages say.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database [1]. Independent. Months with no listed hail day are shown as 0.

April through July holds 48 of the 55 days, or 87% [1]. March through June holds 36, or 65%.

February, August, October and November had one hail day each in 26 years [1]. One-inch days split April 7, June 6, May 5 and July 5.

Storm-season advice that stops at June misses July. Roof checks fit best after April through July storms.

How many tornadoes has Fairfield County had?

NOAA lists 14 Fairfield County tornadoes for 2000 to 2026 [1]. Ten were rated F0 or EF0, and four were rated F1 or EF1. None reached EF2.

That works out to about 0.53 a year. None appear for 2026 through June 14, 2026 [1]. Paths ran from 0.02 to 4.67 miles.

Thunderstorm wind reaches Fairfield on more days than hail. NOAA logged 128 wind days from 2000 to 2025, or 4.92 a year [1]. That is more than twice the 2.12 hail days.

NOAA records wind magnitude in knots [3]. Of 212 Fairfield wind reports, 181 are estimated gusts [1]. Only 12 were measured [1].

Days with a 50 knot report ran 4.73 a year [1]. Any wind report gave 4.92 [1]. The threshold barely filters anything.

So we do not publish a severe wind rate. The 4.92 figure counts days with reported wind damage.

NWS Wilmington confirmed 14 Ohio tornadoes from August 11, 2026 [18]. Three struck Franklin County [18]. The survey page does not list Fairfield.

The South Columbus EF1 had an estimated 100 mph peak wind [19]. Its path ran 1.8 miles. NWS says most damage came from straight-line winds of 60 to 80 mph [24].

A preliminary derecho classification lists an 82 mph Columbus gust [20].

How likely is at least one damaging hail day in the next 5, 10 or 20 years?

Fairfield's 2000 to 2025 NOAA rate implies a 63% yearly chance of 1-inch hail [1]. That covers the whole county, not your roof. Over 5 years the county figure passes 99%.

Observed years match the model. Eighteen of 26 Fairfield years (69%) had a 1-inch hail day, against 63% modeled [1]. The model treats hail days as random and independent, which real years are not.

A hail day somewhere in Fairfield County is not hail on your roof. NOAA has no address-level hail data.

Your own odds are lower than the county's. We found no study measuring how much lower.

Why is the 3 to 6 events per year figure wrong?

NOAA's 2000 to 2025 record shows 2.12 Fairfield hail days a year [1]. Many roofing sites claim 3 to 6 significant hail events. Some earlier claims on this site did too.

NOAA does not publish a count of significant hail events [1]. We found no source for that figure. Table 5 sets eight common claims beside what NOAA's counts actually show for Fairfield.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 2000 to 2025 unless noted [1]. Independent. Claim wording is paraphrased and not tied to one site.

The 55 events claim fails harder. NOAA's Fairfield rows, floods and heavy rain included, average 14.9 a year [1]. Hail, wind and tornado together fall on 6.42 distinct days a year [1].

Hail is a real risk. The sales pitch overstates how often it strikes. Where an older page here disagrees with this one, this page is the sourced one.

What do lab tests and insurers say about small hail and roof age?

IBHS tested 6 asphalt shingle products in a 2025 lab study [8]. Weathering plus small hail cost 16,503 mm2 of granules, against 9,287.5 for weathering alone [8]. IBHS is funded by the property insurance industry.

A 2 inch stone did about 9.6 times more damage to previously hit shingles [8]. The authors say impact-resistant shingles did only slightly better [8]. They also say a larger sample is needed [8].

Insurance Journal rounded that 9.6 to ten times [9]. We use the paper's figure.

Table 6 lists every outside figure used here, with a source flag. Most are national. Almost none name Ohio.

Fact-sheet flags: 2 of these 8 rows are independent and 6 are self-reported. Ohio-specific figures are rare.

Verisk says roofs in moderate-to-poor condition show about 60% higher loss costs [14]. Verisk sells the analytics, so that figure is self-reported. It points to age and condition, not to Fairfield hail counts.

Rising roof costs do not show more hail. Fairfield averaged 1.40 hail days a year in 2021 to 2025 [1].

The 2000 to 2020 average was 2.29. Five data points cannot establish a trend.

Age, ventilation and repeated wind wear shorten a roof's life too. See our guides on shingle lifespan in Ohio and cumulative wind and hail wear.

Does a hail report near me mean my roof needs an inspection?

NOAA's Storm Events Database lists reported hail by date, 2000 to 2026 [1] [2]. A listed date says when hail was reported, not what your roof took. The National Weather Service says outside information in Storm Data may be unverified [5].

A 1 inch report near your address deserves a look. Older, thin shingles can fail at that size [11]. Smaller hail on weathered shingles adds granule loss [8].

Much hail damage is hard to see from the ground. Our guide to assessing your roof after a hail storm shows what to check. Only an on-roof roof inspection settles it.

Ohio's insurance department says hail and wind damage is generally covered after deductibles [21]. Your deductible and policy terms vary. Read yours before you call anyone.

Lancaster homeowners can request an inspection through our roof inspection service. Contractors are independent. See storm damage repair and insurance for post-storm repairs.

What does NOAA not measure about hail?

As of 2026, NOAA's database has no figure for seven questions homeowners ask [1]. We list them so you know where the data stops. Where a proxy exists, we name it.

NOAA's damage values carry a warning. Only 18 of 95 Fairfield hail rows carry a dollar value [1]. Those 18 total $402K, and the largest is $200K on May 3, 2022 [1].

NWS staff enter those values as estimates, and they are not insured loss. Do not compare them to claim totals.

Frequently asked questions