What Sioux Falls Hail and Wind Mean for Pavement

How often storms hit here

Hail is routine in southeastern South Dakota. The Insurance Information Institute, using Storm Prediction Center data, ranked South Dakota seventh among states in 2025 with 232 major hail events, meaning hailstones an inch across or larger, out of 5,432 nationwide. The City of Sioux Falls sees the result in its permit counts: a typical year includes at least one hail event that produces 1,800 to 2,000 shingle permits.

Some years are far worse. In 2022 the city issued 11,171 building permits, more than 5,000 of them for shingles, after what it called multiple destructive storms, including the derecho. There were two that year. On May 12 a derecho crossed the region with gusts of 107 mph at Tripp and 97 mph at Madison, and a station three miles south-southwest of Sioux Falls measured 78 mph. On July 5 a second derecho reached the city, and the airport gusted to 80 mph, with winds above 58 mph for 31 minutes.

The pattern has continued. On July 28, 2025, another derecho sent a 66 mph gust across the Sioux Falls airport and brought 68 mph gusts a mile north of Tea and just north-northeast of Harrisburg. Tornadoes are rarer, but on September 10, 2019, three brief EF-2 tornadoes touched down within the city, near the Western Mall, near the Avera Heart Hospital and near 69th Street and Western Avenue.

What hail does and does not do to asphalt

The storm records measure roofs, windows and trees, not pavement, and no published measurement of hail damage to asphalt driveways turned up in the research for this site. The physics gives some context. NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory puts the fall speed of typical severe hail, one to 1.75 inches across, at about 25 to 40 mph, and of 2- to 4-inch supercell hail at 44 to 72 mph. That is enough to break windows, as the Weather Service reported during regional storms on September 1, 2026, and roofs are what the city's permit numbers count.

A cured asphalt drive is a different target: 2 to 3 inches of compacted asphalt over a stone base, in HomeGuide's standard. The sources behind this post say nothing either way about hail breaking a sound surface like that. What they do document are the effects that follow a storm, and those are the subject of the rest of this post. Fresh sealer is the exception worth noting, because SealMaster warns that rain can wash uncured sealer away entirely, and a thunderstorm in the first 24 hours after a coat brings rain and sometimes ice with it.

The trucks and dumpsters that follow a hailstorm

The most direct pavement effect of a hail year is the repair traffic. Each of those thousands of shingle permits means a roofing crew, a delivery of new shingles and often a roll-off dumpster for the old ones. AnyHauler describes how a roll-off is dragged off its truck on steel rails and rollers, landing its weight on narrow metal edges and small wheels that concentrate pressure on a few square inches, and notes that asphalt can take dents and scrape marks, especially in warm weather.

A few precautions limit the damage. Plywood under the rails and wheels spreads the load, which is why many companies ask for it. Setting the dumpster on a firm, well-drained part of the drive, away from edges and seams, helps too. A drive paved within the last few months is the wrong place for one, since Angi advises keeping heavy equipment off new asphalt while it hardens.

After the roofers leave, walk the drive. Look for rail marks, dents where the dumpster sat, cracked edges where trucks turned, and oil or hydraulic drips. Scuffs in a sealed surface can wait for the next scheduled seal, cracks should be filled before the next winter, and any spot that sank should be treated as a patch rather than sealed over.

Wind-driven dust, debris and tree work

Wind leaves a mess before it leaves damage. During the May 2022 derecho, the Weather Service described storms carrying so much dust and debris that visibility fell to near zero as they passed, and reported significant damage to homes, businesses and farms in many communities. Sealer will not bond to a dirty surface, and SealMaster's preparation steps start with clearing dirt and debris, so a storm between the cleaning and the coating means cleaning again.

Downed limbs bring their own traffic: tree crews, chippers and loaders that may cross the drive. The same cautions apply as for dumpsters. Keep heavy equipment off the edges and off new asphalt, put boards under anything with narrow feet or rails, and check afterward for gouges and cracked edges.

Heavy rain and the sealing calendar

Summer storms also bring water in bulk. On August 7, 2022, the Sioux Falls airport recorded 5.67 inches of rain in 24 hours, setting all-time daily and 24-hour records, and the Weather Service logged vehicles stranded in flooded streets in the northern and western parts of the city. From June 20 to 22, 2024, the city received 6.70 inches, its second-highest three-day total, and the Weather Service counted record flooding at 25 river points across the region. Water pouring across a drive finds every open crack and soaks the base beneath it.

Storm season also overlaps the sealing season. Sealer needs 24 hours without rain, and June, the first dependable month for sealing weather, averages the most days of measurable rain, about 7 with a tenth of an inch or more. A sealing date in June or July should be treated as provisional until the forecast the day before. The crack filling page explains why cracks are better closed in the cool spring and fall weeks, leaving summer for the sealer itself, and the overview of Sioux Falls driveway sealcoating covers the rest of the season.

More from the blog

• A New Driveway's First Sioux Falls Winter, Before the First Seal