Autoblog and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article.A direct hit from golf-ball-sized hail can total a 10-year-old daily driver and rack up four-figure damage on a brand-new SUV, even without any structural denting. Friday's severe thunderstorm outbreak across Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, tracked by the Storm Prediction Center, is the latest reminder of why hail is among the largest categories of comprehensive auto insurance claims in the central United States, and why drivers should understand what actually happens when their car gets caught under the core of a supercell.What Golf Ball Hail Actually IsGolf ball hail measures 1.75 inches in diameter, putting it squarely in the "large hail" category that triggers Severe Thunderstorm Warnings. At terminal velocity, hailstones that size fall at roughly 60 to 80 mph and carry enough kinetic energy to dent steel and aluminum body panels on impact. Larger hail (baseball-sized at 2.75 inches, softball-sized at 4 inches) becomes capable of penetrating windshields, cracking polycarbonate sunroofs, and totaling vehicles outright.Body Panel Damage: Why Aluminum and Steel Behave DifferentlyModern car bodies are not the homogeneous steel they were 20 years ago. Aluminum hoods, standard on Ford's F-150 since 2015 and on most performance cars, dent more easily than steel of the same gauge but spring back further before permanent deformation. Composite plastic fenders often shrug off small hail entirely but crack catastrophically under larger impacts. Paintless dent repair on steel typically runs $75 to $150 per dent, while aluminum work generally runs 30 to 50 percent higher because the metal requires specialized tools and longer cycle times.Glass Damage: Windshields, Sunroofs & Side WindowsWindshields are laminated and rarely shatter outright, but golf ball hail can crack the outer glass and require full replacement. Modern panoramic sunroofs are the bigger problem: large single panels of tempered glass that crack more easily and cost two to four times what a windshield replacement runs. Side windows are tempered safety glass and usually survive unless struck dead-on by hail above 2 inches. Aftermarket window tint adds no meaningful impact protection.Insurance Reality: Comprehensive, Deductibles & Total LossHail damage falls under comprehensive insurance, not collision, and most policies include it by default. The math turns on three variables: deductible, vehicle book value, and local labor rates. A 12-year-old sedan with $5,000 in book value can be totaled by a single event, while a three-year-old SUV will almost always be repaired. The Insurance Information Institute lists hail among the top severe-weather claim categories nationally, with Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Nebraska routinely leading the country in vehicle hail claims.What to Do When Hail HitsIf you can shelter your vehicle under a covered structure before the storm core arrives, do it. If you're caught driving, the worst move is parking under a highway overpass, which creates rear-end collision risk for traffic behind you. Open shoulder is safer, ideally facing the windshield away from the prevailing wind. After the storm, document damage with timestamped photos before any cleanup, get two repair estimates from established body shops, and avoid roadside repair offers that show up the next morning. Autoblog's severe weather driving guide and tire tread depth primer cover the in-storm decisions in more detail.AdvertisementAdvertisementThis story was originally published by Autoblog on May 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the Car Buying section. Add Autoblog as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
