A brief localized hail storm dropped baseball-size hail early Thursday evening 10 miles south of Lemmon along S.D. Highway 73.

Perkins County rancher Jack Hantz said in just 15 minutes, the hail damaged his home's roof, took out two windows, knocked down branches and hurt at least one of his calves.

Hantz said he stood on his deck and watched over his cattle and some new calves as the storm approached.

"I didn't realize the hailstones were going to get that big," Hantz said. "The storm came through fast, straight out of the west, and at the peak of it, the hailstones were about three inches in diameter, and numerous."

After the storm, there were blue skies, and Hantz said his rain gauge showed a half-inch of rain.

Mitchell Erickson of the National Weather Service office in Rapid City said the storm started at 4 p.m. in Harding County and moved east, to near Lodgepole, and then Lemmon in Perkins County. Erickson said he had not received other reports of damage, even though 2- to 3-inch hail was reported in spots.