Tornadoes get the headlines, but most severe weather in the United States is hail and wind. In 2025, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 7,982 reports of hail 1 inch or larger and 22,263 reports of damaging thunderstorm winds, against 1,383 tornadoes, which are covered in our post on tornadoes by state. Five charts show where the hail and wind struck, how big and how strong they got, and when.
Texas dominates hail
Texas had 1,302 severe hail reports, 16.3 per cent of the national total and more than twice Oklahoma's 637, according to the chart of hail reports by state. Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska followed. Texas also had the year's largest hailstone, 6.00 inches on May 25, and all seven stones of 5 inches or more; the largest hailstone chart shows Kentucky, Oklahoma and South Dakota next at 4.50 inches.
Wind damage is spread across the East and South
The chart of damaging wind reports is led not by a Plains state but by Alabama, with 1,561, ahead of Texas (1,206), Virginia and Illinois. Only 21.2 per cent of wind reports were measured by instruments; the strongest measured gust was 112 mph in Texas on April 22, and during the June 20 derecho gusts of 110 mph were measured in North Dakota and 106 mph in Minnesota, as the strongest gust chart shows.
May and June were the peak
Adding hail, wind and tornadoes together, the chart of severe weather by month shows June as the busiest month with 6,795 reports, followed by May with 6,616. Hail peaked in May, wind in June and tornadoes in April.
| Chart | Top | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Severe hail reports | Texas | 1,302 |
| Largest hailstone (in) | Texas | 6.00 |
| Damaging wind reports | Alabama | 1,561 |
| Strongest measured gust (mph) | Texas | 112 |
| Busiest month | June | 6,795 |
How to read the numbers
The Storm Prediction Center counts a thunderstorm as severe when it produces hail of at least 1 inch, gusts of 58 mph or more, or a tornado, and these charts follow that threshold; 1,385 smaller hail reports in its file are left out. The figures are reports rather than storms, so one storm can produce many, and places where more people live tend to report more. Most wind speeds are estimated from damage rather than measured.