HISTORICAL HAIL DATA Goals: To use data derived from the official severe storm archives of the Storm Prediction Center to study the temporal and spatial distribution of thunderstorms that produce large hail.

Data:

Tabular data, by state, of occurrences of hail of diameter at least 0.75 inches during the period 1986-1995. Hail of this size qualifies the thunderstorm as "severe" based on National Weather Service criterion (Alaska and Hawaii are not listed because no hail this large was observed in either state). Although data is available as far back as 1955 in the archives of the Storm Prediction Center, we will use only data observed since 1986 (because this most recent data is the most reliable).

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Here is a file of instructions for decoding the tabular information.