The largest hail report of the night belongs to Converse: 2.50 inches, three miles southeast of town, logged from pictures that also showed “damage of broken windshields and windows of cars.” Ten minutes later a second report put dime-to-golf-ball hail, 1.75 inches, in the Paloma subdivision. Both are preliminary, and both are quoted in full below.
Haydent has one office, at 17601 Ronald Reagan Blvd in Leander, and no Converse location; the technician comes to the car, and (281) 642-2188 reaches the person who arranges that.
What was recorded that night
The reports below are preliminary observations collected by the National Weather Service for the reporting day beginning 7 a.m. Friday, September 11. Times are Central. They are not a complete map of the damage, and entries can later be corrected or duplicated.
This page carries the two reports that name Converse. The Kirby, Saint Hedwig, China Grove and Randolph AFB reports sit with their own towns, and the full warning-by-warning sequence is on the metro page.
San Antonio metro page: every report from the night and the full warning timeline ↗
Kirby page: the 10:04 p.m. statement and the eight minutes before the severe warning ↗
A report near your street is not a report on your car
Two vehicles parked on the same block can come out of the same storm very differently. Which way the car was facing, whether a tree or a carport took part of it, the shape of the panels and the condition of the paint all change what a hail core leaves behind. The reports explain the storm. Only an inspection establishes what happened to your vehicle.
What to do first
- Photograph the car before anything else happens to it — the whole vehicle first, then the hood, roof and trunk, then close views of each dent and of any cracked glass.
- Write down where the car was parked around 10 p.m. Friday, September 11. If it moved during the storm, record each location rather than picking the nearest report on a map.
- Keep your original photo files. A screenshot of a photo loses the detail you will want later.
- If you are filing a claim, get the claim number and any estimate your insurer has already written, and confirm your coverage, deductible and rental benefit directly with them — those are specific to your policy.
- Have the vehicle inspected before authorizing any repair, so the plan and the estimate are built on what is actually on the panels.
Paintless dent repair, on site
Haydent’s technician comes to the vehicle. For a Converse owner that means the driveway, the apartment lot or the parking space at work, and there is no drop-off at a shop across town. The work is done where the car sits.
Paintless dent repair works the metal back into shape from behind the panel, with rods through factory access points, or from the front with glue tabs, and leaves the factory paint untouched. That is why it is the first choice for hail: no filler, no repaint, no new color to age differently from the rest of the car.
It is not always the answer for the hail Converse took. Two-inch stones can crack the paint at the bottom of a dent, and a cracked finish cannot be pushed back to whole. They can stretch the metal so far that it will not return to a flat panel. Aluminum hoods and deck lids are stiffer than steel and tend to split rather than move. Where the inspection finds any of that, the estimate says so and calls for panel replacement, paint or glass instead of PDR — work that carries the same Haydent workmanship warranty as PDR.
Two Converse pins on KSAT’s viewer map
KSAT’s viewer map from that night carries two pins that name the town: “Hail in Converse TX on 9/11/2026,” placed on the Northeast Side, and “Hail off 1516 Converse,” on FM 1516. KSAT gave no sizes, and these are viewer submissions rather than measurements. The hail did not stop at the city line — the 10:12 p.m. warning named San Antonio alongside Converse among the locations impacted — and the neighborhoods inside the city limits are covered on the metro page.
San Antonio metro page: inside the city limits, and which page is yours ↗
Filing a comprehensive claim in Texas
Hail is normally a comprehensive claim, not a collision claim. Check your declarations page for comprehensive coverage and the deductible attached to it before you call anyone; if that line is not there, ask your insurer whether the policy responds to hail at all. Haydent does not decide coverage.
The Texas Department of Insurance keeps a page titled “Help after a storm.” It is written for storm damage in general, and these steps are quoted from it:
- “Call your insurance agent or company as soon as possible to report property damage.”
- “Take pictures and video of the damage. Don’t throw anything away until your insurance adjuster tells you.”
- “Make temporary repairs to prevent more damage.” “Cover broken windows and holes to keep rain out.”
- “Don’t make permanent repairs before the insurance adjuster sees the damage.”
- “Keep a list of the repairs and save receipts.”
- “Try to be there when the adjuster visits and point out all damage.”
- “Save proof that you paid the deductible on the claim.”
For a car, that means plastic and tape over the broken window tonight, the receipt for the tape kept with the photos, and the adjuster seeing the car before anything is pushed or replaced. Have the claim number ready when you call Haydent, along with any estimate the insurer has already written. Coverage, deductible and rental benefit are set by your policy; confirm them with your insurer, not with a repair company.
TDI’s Help Line is 800-252-3439, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central, for company phone numbers and questions about how to file a claim.
Total-loss and broken glass
The 2.50-inch report for Converse notes “damage of broken windshields and windows of cars” in the pictures, and MySA’s photo roundup on Saturday described rear windows shattered with rain inside, windshields cracked with impact marks and a hood carrying dozens of dents. That combination is what turns a hail claim into a total-loss question.
TDI’s explanation is short: “The insurance company will look at the value of your car vs. the cost to repair it.” If “the cost to repair the car is about the same or more than the value of your car, the insurance company will likely consider it totaled.” It adds that “Some companies might total your car even if the cost to fix it is lower.” No percentage appears here because TDI’s page does not give one.
Broken glass raises the estimate twice. The glass itself is one line; the water that came through it is the rest — headliner, seats, carpet, door electronics, and the drying and interior work that follows. Roof and deck-lid dents that were PDR candidates on a dry car sit next to a soaked interior on a wet one, and the total moves toward the vehicle’s value.
What Haydent’s inspection produces is the number you and the adjuster both need: dents counted per panel and graded by size, each area of cracked paint, each piece of broken glass, the trim that has to come off, and any sign of water inside. Haydent does not decide total loss; your carrier does. TDI notes that “If you want to keep your car, let the insurance company know as soon as possible.”
How to check a car for hail damage
- Wash the car before you look. Dust and water spots hide small dents and imitate others.
- Look in shade or under fluorescent light, or at dusk with a flashlight held low across the panel, so each dent throws a shadow.
- Start with the horizontal panels — roof, hood, deck lid. That is where hail lands hardest.
- Then the sides: doors, fenders and quarter panels.
- Move a flat hand slowly over each panel. Fingers pick up what the eye passes over.
- Check every piece of glass, the mirror housings, the sunroof, the lamps and the plastic trim. A chip in glass spreads.
- Photograph each dent with a coin beside it for scale, and keep the date and time in the file. Note where the car was parked around 10 p.m. Friday, September 11.
- Cover broken glass to keep rain out and keep the receipt for what you used, as TDI advises.
Schertz page: why wind-driven hail reaches doors, fenders and quarter panels ↗
What the estimate is built from
There is no dollar figure on this page, and there will not be one over the phone. The estimate is written after the inspection, panel by panel, from these variables:
- Dents per panel — a roof with forty is a different job from a roof with eight.
- Dent diameter and depth — 2.50-inch hail leaves larger, deeper dents than 1.00-inch hail, and depth decides whether the metal can be worked at all.
- Steel or aluminum — aluminum takes more time per dent and gives up sooner.
- Access — roof rails, double-skinned deck lids and braced hoods limit where a rod can reach, and some panels need the headliner or trim out first.
- Cracked paint — moves a panel from PDR to paint.
- Glass — windshield, rear window, side glass, sunroof and mirrors, each written separately.
- Trim removal — mouldings, badges, lamps and the headliner, removed and reinstalled so the panel can be worked.
The written estimate goes to you, and you can pass it to your adjuster. If the adjuster has already written one, bring it to the inspection so the two can be compared line by line.
How long it takes
No number here either, because the same four things set the schedule for every car and none of them is known before the inspection: the dent count, the lead time on any glass that has to be ordered, how quickly the adjuster approves the estimate or a supplement, and how many vehicles were already booked in the days after September 11. When you call, Haydent tells you where the schedule stands that week. A date on a web page would be a guess.
Your insurer and your choice of shop
Texas Insurance Code §1952.301 says an auto insurer may not limit which repair person or facility you choose to repair your vehicle. A carrier can recommend a network shop; it cannot require one. That applies whoever you are with — USAA, State Farm, Progressive, GEICO, Allstate or a smaller carrier — and it is the one piece of Texas law worth knowing before you agree to anything on the phone.
Randolph Air Force Base sits directly north of Converse, and USAA is headquartered across the city, so a great many vehicles hit on Friday night are on military-family policies. Haydent comes to the vehicle; for a car kept on base, that means meeting off base or sponsoring the technician through the Visitor Control Center under the base’s own rules — Haydent makes no claim to base access.
What the hail-size names mean
News coverage on Friday night said “golf ball.” The NOAA size table puts a golf ball at 1.75 inches and a tennis ball at 2.50 inches — the size the Storm Prediction Center logged three miles southeast of Converse. The names are estimates from the ground; the inch figures are what the reports carry, and the 2.50-inch Converse report’s time and location were estimated from radar by the National Weather Service rather than measured at a fixed point.
How Haydent works, and what it does not do
- A technician comes to the vehicle. The corporate office is at 17601 Ronald Reagan Blvd, Leander, TX 78641; the work is done where the car is.
- The inspection comes first and the written estimate comes from it. No price over the phone and no quote from a photo.
- Haydent does not pay, discount or rebate your deductible. The deductible is between you and your insurer, and TDI advises saving proof that you paid it.
- Haydent does not supply rental cars. Whether a rental is covered is a policy term; ask your insurer.
- Haydent does not file or manage your claim. Have the claim number ready and confirm the terms with your insurer.
- Any third-party quote is reviewed and approved by a Haydent LLC manager before work is authorized.
- Every repair — paintless dent repair, panel replacement, paint and glass — carries a lifetime workmanship warranty for as long as you own the vehicle, transferable on request. Warranty inspections happen at our shop, on-site at your home, or at a qualified dealership body shop of your choice.
The reports, as filed
September 11, 2026 · Central time- 9:59 p.m.2.50 inch hail3 miles SE of Converse
Numerous social media pictures of hail ranging in the 2 to 2.5 inch range in Converse. Pictures also include damage of broken windshields and windows of cars. (The full Local Storm Report adds: Location and timing estimated based on strongest hail indications within Converse on archived radar imagery.)
- 10:10 p.m.1.75 inch hail4 miles SSE of Converse
Dime to golfball sized hail reported via social media in the time window of 1005 to 1015 in the Paloma Subdivision.
Preliminary reports from the NOAA Storm Prediction Center. Sizes are as reported, not as measured by Haydent.
Converse, minute by minute
Central time · from the sources below- 9:59 p.m.
The time assigned to the 2.50-inch report three miles southeast of Converse. The Local Storm Report, issued at 3:04 p.m. on Saturday, September 12, says the location and timing were “estimated based on strongest hail indications within Converse on archived radar imagery.”
NWS Austin/San Antonio Local Storm Report, via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive ↗ - 10:04 p.m.
Converse is on the list of locations in the Special Weather Statement issued at 10:05 p.m., the last product before the severe warning. The statement itself is quoted on the Kirby page.
NWS Austin/San Antonio Special Weather Statement (GovOneStop archive) ↗ - 10:05–10:15 p.m.
The window given for the Paloma subdivision, logged at 10:10 p.m. and issued as a Local Storm Report at 10:43 p.m.: “Dime to golfball sized hail reported via social media in the time window of 1005 to 1015 in the Paloma Subdivision,” four miles south-southeast of Converse.
NOAA Storm Prediction Center, September 11, 2026 preliminary reports ↗ - 10:12 p.m.
Severe Thunderstorm Warning, in effect until 11:15 p.m. Converse is named among the locations impacted, and the impact line reads “Expect hail damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles.” The warning’s own description of the storm is on the Kirby page, and the full product is on the metro page.
NWS Austin/San Antonio Severe Thunderstorm Warning (GovOneStop archive) ↗
Where Haydent is taking work
- Converse
- Paloma subdivision
- Weichold Road
- FM 1516
- ZIP code 78109
Hail cores are narrower than the storms that carry them. If your street is not on this list and your car is dented, it still counts — call and say where you were parked.
Nearby, from the same night
Questions from Converse this week
Do you actually work in Converse?
Yes. Haydent takes hail work in Converse and the streets around it — the Paloma subdivision, FM 1516, anywhere in 78109 where a car sat outside on September 11. Kirby, Saint Hedwig and China Grove, and Schertz each have their own page with their own reports. Haydent’s office is in Leander; call (281) 642-2188 and the inspection is arranged where the car is.
My windshield cracked in the storm too. Is that part of this?
Auto glass is one of the four kinds of work Haydent’s published warranty names, alongside paintless dent repair, panel replacement and paint. Photograph the glass with the rest of the damage and raise it at the inspection so the whole vehicle is scoped at once.
The Converse pictures showed 2 to 2.5-inch stones. Can that be fixed without repainting?
Sometimes. Paintless dent repair keeps the factory finish, and it is the first thing the technician checks for on every panel. Stones that size can crack the paint at the bottom of a dent or stretch the metal past the point where it will lie flat again, and aluminum hoods split sooner than steel; any of those moves that panel to paint or replacement. The inspection decides panel by panel, which is why there is no answer to this from a photo.
The report says three miles southeast of Converse. How exact is that?
Not very, and the National Weather Service says so. The 2.50-inch report was built from social media pictures, and the Local Storm Report issued Saturday afternoon states that its location and timing were estimated from the strongest hail signatures over Converse on archived radar. Treat it as somewhere in Converse around 10 p.m., not a pin on a street. The Paloma subdivision report is the more specific of the two. Both remain preliminary until the NWS finalizes its Storm Data for September.
Why did the news say golf ball hail when the report says 2.50 inches?
Because there were two reports and a warning. The 10:12 p.m. warning carried a “golf ball size hail” hazard, and the Paloma subdivision report describes “dime to golfball sized” stones, logged at 1.75 inches — the description MySA repeated on Saturday. The 2.50-inch figure comes from a separate report built on pictures posted from Converse. Golf-ball stones and larger ones can fall from the same cell minutes apart, so neither number is wrong; the larger one simply has less precise location and timing.
Where in Converse does the inspection happen?
Wherever the car is. Give the address where it sits — a driveway off FM 1516, a street in the Paloma subdivision, a parking space at work — and the technician meets you there. There is no Converse shop to bring it to, and you are not asked to drive anywhere. If the work turns out to need panel replacement, paint or glass, that is explained at the inspection along with where it would be done.
My rear window is gone and it rained inside. What does that change?
It changes the estimate more than the dents do. The glass is one line; the wet interior — headliner, seats, carpet, door electronics — is the rest, and that is the combination that pushes a hail claim toward the vehicle’s value. Cover the opening now, keep the receipt for what you used, and photograph the inside before it dries. Tell your insurer the interior took water when you report the claim, and raise it first at the inspection so it is documented with the dents.
I live in the Paloma subdivision. Which report is mine?
The 1.75-inch one. The Local Storm Report logged at 10:10 p.m. reads “Dime to golfball sized hail reported via social media in the time window of 1005 to 1015 in the Paloma Subdivision,” four miles south-southeast of Converse, off Weichold Road in 78109, and MySA repeated it on Saturday. It is the more place-specific of the two Converse reports. It is still a preliminary social-media report, so photograph your car rather than assuming the largest stones in that range hit your street.
I’m with USAA. Do I have to use their network shop?
No. Under Texas Insurance Code §1952.301 an insurer may not limit which repair facility you choose for your vehicle. USAA can suggest a network shop and can inspect the car itself; the decision on where it is repaired is yours. File the claim through USAA’s own app or claims line, keep the claim number, and tell the adjuster which shop you have chosen.
State Farm or Progressive told me to go to a specific body shop. Is that required?
A recommendation is allowed; a requirement is not. Texas law (Insurance Code §1952.301) prohibits an auto insurer from limiting your choice of repair person or facility. Ask for the estimate in writing, get Haydent’s inspection, and compare. Confirm your coverage, deductible and any rental benefit with the carrier — those depend on your policy, not on the shop.
My car lives on JBSA-Randolph. Can Haydent come to it?
Haydent comes to the vehicle, but base access is the base’s decision, not Haydent’s. The usual answer is to meet off base — a driveway or workplace in Universal City, Converse or Schertz — or to sponsor the technician through the Visitor Control Center under the base’s current rules. Call and say where the car is; that settles which.
The news said golf-ball hail. The report says 2.50 inches. Which is it?
Both describe the same night from different places. On NOAA’s size table a golf ball is 1.75 inches and a tennis ball is 2.50 inches. The 1.75-inch report is the Paloma subdivision; the 2.50-inch report is three miles southeast of Converse, and its time and place were estimated from radar. What matters for your car is what is on your panels, which is what the inspection documents.
How soon can someone look at it?
Ask when you call. Scheduling after a storm depends on how many vehicles are already booked that week, and Haydent would rather give you a real answer on the phone than a promise on a web page.
The storm was Friday. Have I already missed a deadline?
Reporting requirements and time limits are set by your policy, not by Haydent, so check them with your insurer rather than relying on a general answer. What helps in every case is documenting the damage now and keeping the storm date with the photos.
What will the repair cost?
That depends on the number, size and location of the dents and on access to the damaged areas. Haydent does not quote hail repair from a photo or a hail map — the vehicle has to be inspected before an estimate means anything.