NORTH PHOENIX HAIL REPAIR: $0 OUT OF POCKET

Street-Level View

WHERE THE OCTOBER 21 HAIL LANDED IN NORTH PHOENIX

The NWS names its report locations by distance from a reference point — here, “Deer Valley.” That’s hard to picture, so below we’ve placed each north Phoenix report on the city’s street grid using its coordinates. The coordinates are only accurate to about half a mile, so treat each one as “near,” not “at.”

Read together, the reports describe one storm moving north and east across the I-17 corridor in about fifteen minutes, with golf-ball hail at its core. A car parked anywhere between those points — not just at them — most likely took the same stones. The full report log for both days, including Glendale, Peoria and the East Valley, is on our October 20–21 Phoenix storm page.

Neighborhood By Neighborhood

SUNNYSLOPE TO DEER VALLEY: WHAT TO CHECK WHERE

Sunnyslope and North Mountain. This is our own neighborhood — the Hatcher Road shop sits here, at the south end of the swath. The nearest report, 1.25-inch hail near Peoria Avenue and 15th Avenue, is about a mile away. Cars on the Sunnyslope blocks and along Dunlap and Peoria Avenues should be checked even if nothing looked wrong at first glance; half-dollar hail leaves dents that only show in low-angle light.

Moon Valley and the Thunderbird corridor. Two of the heaviest reports — 1.75 inches between Thunderbird and Greenway near 7th Avenue, and 1.50 inches on Thunderbird around 19th Avenue — fell within a few minutes of each other on the west side of Moon Valley. Expect roofs and hoods with deep, close-spaced dents here, and look closely at sunroofs, mirror caps and taillight lenses.

Deer Valley and the Bell–Union Hills area. The storm reached Bell Road and Union Hills by 3:40 PM and kept producing hail up to Deer Valley Road. The second golf-ball report, near 16th Street between Union Hills and Beardsley, landed at 3:42 PM. Office parks and retail lots along this stretch held a lot of cars mid-afternoon.

North of Deer Valley Road. The last north Phoenix report came in near Deer Valley Road and 24th Street at 3:45 PM, ping-pong size. Beyond that the record goes quiet until a nickel-size report east of Carefree at 4:05 PM.

Why It Matters

A 3:30 PM STORM CATCHES CARS AWAY FROM HOME

Night storms hit cars in driveways and garages. This one hit at 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, when a large share of north Phoenix’s cars were parked at work, at school pickup or in a store lot — often uncovered. Two things follow. First, your car may have been hit somewhere other than home, so check it even if your street saw nothing. Second, the date of loss is still October 21, wherever the car was parked; the claim is based on the storm date, not your address.

Daytime storms also mean a lot of people saw the hail happen and assume their car is fine because it looked fine that evening. Dents from 1.25 to 1.75-inch hail often don’t show in flat midday light. The next morning, look along the hood and roof from a low angle, or text us a few photos and we’ll tell you what we see.