Hail Size Guide: What Pea, Quarter, Golf Ball, and Baseball Hail Actually Do to Your Home
Pea-sized hail scuffs. Golf-ball hail bruises shingles. Baseball hail breaks things. Here is what each size typically does to a home — and what to document for each.
When the weather report says "golf-ball-sized hail," most homeowners picture the same thing: a ruined roof. But hail size is not a simple damage dial. Pea-sized hail can still leave a record worth keeping, and quarter-sized hail can dent a gutter while leaving a newer roof more or less alone. What matters is the combination of size, speed, roof type, and roof age.
StormFile is a documentation tool, not an adjuster or a legal advisor. This is practical guidance, not insurance or legal advice. Coverage decisions belong to your policy and your carrier, and only an inspection of your actual home can say what a particular storm did to it.
Why hail size gets reported the way it does
Forecasters describe hail by comparing it to familiar objects, because almost nobody carries calipers during a storm. Those comparisons map to rough diameters:
- Pea: about 1/4 inch
- Marble: about 1/2 inch
- Penny: about 3/4 inch
- Quarter or nickel: about 1 inch
- Golf ball: about 1 3/4 inches
- Tennis ball: about 2 1/2 inches
- Baseball: about 2 3/4 inches
- Softball: about 4 inches and up
The National Weather Service treats hail of 1 inch or larger as "severe," which is why a quarter-sized hail report is the line where warnings and claims tend to start in earnest. That line is a forecasting threshold, not a promise about your roof: a 1-inch stone driven sideways by 60 mph wind hits differently than one falling straight down, and a 20-year-old shingle responds differently than a 2-year-old one.
Pea to marble (1/4 to 1/2 inch): mostly scuffs, still worth a record
Small hail is the most common kind, and the least dramatic. On asphalt shingles it usually knocks a few granules loose without bruising underneath. On vinyl siding it may leave faint pocks that are hard to see unless the light is right. On metal gutters and downspouts, you may find tiny dimples.
That sounds like nothing — and often it is nothing, in claim terms. But document it anyway. Dated photos after a small storm prove what your home looked like before a bigger storm later in the season, which matters when a later claim has to separate old damage from new. And small hail on older, already-worn roofing can finish off shingles near the end of their life — wear that is hard to reconstruct months later from memory.
What to photograph: wide shots of each side of the house, close-ups of any granule loss or dimpling, and a hailstone next to a coin if you can grab one safely after the storm passes. Do not go outside during the storm to collect samples.
Penny to quarter (3/4 to 1 inch): where soft metals start talking
This is the range where hail damage starts to become visible and verifiable. Soft metals are your best witnesses here: aluminum gutters, downspouts, vent caps, window screens, and air conditioner fins dent at sizes well below what it takes to bruise a shingle. Crisp, numerous dents on the windward side of a gutter are some of the clearest evidence that hail of a certain size actually fell on your property — and adjusters check them for exactly that reason.
On asphalt shingles, quarter-sized hail can cause light bruising, especially on older or sun-baked shingles; on newer architectural shingles, the same storm may leave only granule displacement. Vinyl siding may show dimples and occasional small cracks, and window screens often dent or tear before the glass is affected.
What to photograph: soft metals first, because they tell the size story most clearly. Get close-ups of dented gutters, vent caps, and AC fins with a coin for scale, then the same windward-side pattern on siding and shingles. Note which side of the house faced the storm — hail damage that concentrates on one side and spares the other is a consistent storm pattern, and it is much more persuasive than scattered dents everywhere.
Golf ball (1 3/4 inches): where roofs start taking functional damage
Golf-ball hail is the size most roofers and adjusters take seriously on sight, and for good reason. At this size, hail commonly bruises asphalt shingles — a soft, dented spot where granules are knocked loose and the mat underneath is exposed. Bruising matters because it shortens the shingle's remaining life and can lead to cracking later, which is why it is often treated as functional damage rather than cosmetic.
Other materials show it too: vinyl siding cracks more readily, wood siding and trim can split, gutters dent deeply or pull loose at seams, and window screens and skylights take real hits. Metal roofs dent visibly, though dents alone do not necessarily mean the roof has stopped shedding water. Photograph broken patio furniture and garden items too — they corroborate the storm's force even if they are not part of a roof claim.
What to photograph: everything in the previous section, plus slope-by-slope roof coverage from the ground with zoom. Look for round, dark spots on shingles where the mat shows through, and photograph them with scale. Never climb onto a roof to get a closer look — ground-level photos with zoom are enough for a record, and a fall is not worth a claim.
Tennis ball to baseball (2 1/2 to 2 3/4 inches) and beyond: breakage territory
Once hail reaches tennis-ball size and above, the conversation changes from dents to breakage. Shingles can crack, split, or be knocked off entirely. Tile and slate can shatter. Windows can break, skylights can crack, siding can be punctured, and gutters can be torn from their hangers. Cars parked outside will almost certainly show it. At softball size, hail can damage anything exposed, including deck boards and fencing, and it is a genuine safety hazard — stay indoors until the storm fully passes.
After a storm this size, the documentation job is the same, just more urgent: photograph before anything is repaired or cleaned up. Also photograph the undamaged sides — a clean leeward side next to a battered windward side is one of the strongest patterns a photo record can show.
Size is not the whole story
Four factors change what a given hail size does — and why two neighbors can get different outcomes from the same storm:
- Wind speed and direction. Wind drives hail sideways, increasing impact force and concentrating damage on the windward slopes. Calm-air hail of the same size does less.
- Roof age and condition. An older shingle that has already lost granules to sun and weather bruises more easily than a new one. Age does not disqualify a claim, but it does change what the damage looks like.
- Roof material. Asphalt bruises, metal dents, tile cracks, wood splits. The same storm writes a different signature on each material, which is why adjusters judge each roof type by its own standard.
- Hail density and duration. Ten minutes of golf-ball hail does more than a thirty-second burst of it. Duration is worth noting in your written record, along with the date, rough time, and wind direction if you know it.
That is also why a report of "quarter-sized hail in your county" does not settle anything about your house. County reports describe a storm; your photos describe your home.
What to do with the size you saw
- Measure it honestly. A photo of a hailstone next to a coin is gold. If you are estimating from memory, say so and compare to a familiar object rather than guessing a number — an honest record is more credible than a dramatic one.
- Match your photos to the size. Small hail: focus on soft metals and granule loss. Large hail: cover the roof slopes, siding, windows, and skylights, and do not skip the outdoor items.
- Write it down while it is fresh. Date, time, hail size, wind direction, what you heard and saw, and your roof's age and type — kept with your photos, not scattered through your camera roll.
- File promptly, and do not repair first. Photograph first, fix later. Once a roof is patched or dented siding is replaced, the evidence is gone — and no size estimate, however accurate, can rebuild it.
The record, done right, while the evidence is fresh
Phone photos are a good start. A structured report takes it further: organized photos, AI-flagged visible damage with locations marked, timestamps, and a PDF you can hand to your adjuster or contractor in one file instead of scrolling through a camera roll. That is what StormFile does — $39 per report, and it documents what is visible in your photos. It does not assess damage the way an adjuster does, and it does not guarantee a claim outcome. It is a record, done right, while the evidence is fresh.
Start my report — $39The bottom line
Hail size is a useful shorthand, not a verdict. Pea-sized hail scuffs and still deserves a dated record. Quarter-sized hail dents soft metals and starts to bruise older shingles. Golf-ball hail commonly causes functional roof damage. Baseball-sized hail breaks things. In every case, the size tells you what to look for — but your photos, taken before anything is repaired, are what prove what happened to your home.
StormFile is a documentation tool — a timestamped, AI-assisted photographic record of visible condition. It is not an inspection, not an adjuster’s opinion, and not legal or insurance advice. For questions about coverage or your claim, talk to your agent or a licensed professional.