Lawmakers were mid-debate inside the Alabama State Capitol on the afternoon of May 6, 2026, when baseball-sized hailstones began hammering the building’s windows and historic dome. Within minutes, legislative staff ordered an evacuation, sending senators, representatives, and aides scrambling from the chamber as the supercell parked over downtown Montgomery and unleashed a barrage that shattered car windshields, stripped tree limbs, and turned Interstate 85 into a gauntlet of ice and broken glass.
The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center log for the 24-hour period beginning at 1200 UTC on May 6 confirms the storm’s severity. A trained spotter recorded hailstones measuring 2.75 inches in diameter near Waugh along I-85 at Exit 10, a size the NWS classifies as “baseball.” Trained spotters are volunteers who have completed formal NWS coursework in identifying and measuring severe weather, giving their reports a higher reliability grade than unverified public submissions. Additional entries in the same log document 2.5-inch stones across the broader Montgomery area, indicating the hail was not a single strike but a sustained assault that tracked across the county.
The Capitol evacuation
Alabama’s legislature was in Montgomery for a special session when the storm hit. The timing forced an extraordinary collision between governance and nature: lawmakers had to abandon the floor and shelter deeper inside the building or leave entirely as hail pounded the exterior. As first reported by Alabama-based outlets including AL.com and WSFA-TV, the evacuation interrupted active floor proceedings, though no public statement from legislative leadership or the Capitol’s administrative office has yet detailed the exact timeline, how many people were inside, or what physical damage the 175-year-old building sustained. Without an on-the-record account from a named legislative official, the sequence is still partially reconstructed from those secondary news reports. Whether the session resumed later that day or was postponed has not been confirmed in available primary sources.
Damage across Montgomery
Outside the Capitol, the combination of large hail and torrential rain created rapid, overlapping hazards. The Montgomery Police Department and Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office fielded multiple reports of traffic accidents along I-85 and feeder roads as drivers encountered near-zero visibility while hailstones cratered windshields, according to local broadcast accounts. Montgomery Fire/Rescue crews responded to reports of minor injuries from flying glass and falls on hail-covered sidewalks, though no storm-related fatalities had been officially recorded as of late May 2026. Scattered power outages hit neighborhoods where ice-laden branches snapped onto distribution lines, briefly cutting electricity to homes and small businesses.
The full scope of property and vehicle damage remains unquantified. The NWS Birmingham Weather Forecast Office, whose storm survey archive covers the Montgomery area, has cataloged the May 6 event as involving both hail and flooding. A detailed damage survey specific to this storm had not yet appeared on the office’s public page as of late May 2026. That survey, when published, will include ground-truth measurements that either confirm or revise the initial spotter reports and provide the first official estimate of the hail swath’s width and path.
Insurance impacts are still emerging. Major carriers typically see a surge of auto and homeowner claims after large-hail events, but statewide claim totals and average payouts are compiled only after adjusters complete field inspections. Until those numbers surface, it is too early to say whether this storm will rank among Alabama’s costliest hail episodes or settle as a mid-tier event.
Putting 2.75-inch hail in perspective
Hailstones of 2.75 inches are large enough to dent steel car panels, crack vinyl siding, and punch through older single-pane windows. For comparison, the NWS considers hail “severe” at just one inch in diameter, roughly the size of a quarter. At baseball size, the stones are falling at estimated speeds above 80 mph, according to NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, carrying enough kinetic energy to injure anyone caught outdoors without cover.
Montgomery is no stranger to severe spring weather, but hail of this size striking the downtown core during an active legislative session is unusual. NOAA’s Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database shows the Southeast has experienced a rising number of costly severe-storm events over recent decades, though linking any single hailstorm to a long-term trend requires peer-reviewed attribution studies that have not been produced for this event.
State-level response
The Alabama Emergency Management Agency, headquartered in Clanton, serves as the state’s coordination hub during severe weather. Its operations center typically activates when storms of this magnitude hit populated areas, and its public updates are the primary channel for shelter-in-place guidance and flash-flood alerts. Whether AEMA formally elevated its activation posture for the May 6 storm, or whether the governor’s office issued an emergency declaration, has not been confirmed in available primary documentation. Residents tracking the aftermath should monitor AEMA’s site for any formal disaster declarations or recovery programs that could unlock additional state or federal assistance.
What Montgomery residents should do after the May 6 hailstorm
Property owners who sustained hail damage should photograph all affected surfaces, roofing, vehicles, and landscaping before making temporary repairs, and file insurance claims as soon as possible. Early documentation preserves options if disputes arise over the extent of damage. For future storms, the basics still apply: move vehicles under cover when warnings are issued, stay away from windows, and avoid driving on highways where large hail can turn a commute deadly in seconds. The NWS Birmingham storm survey, once published, will offer the clearest picture yet of how far the hail swath extended and how much punishment Montgomery absorbed on a Tuesday afternoon that started with a legislative agenda and ended with ice on the Capitol steps.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
