How to Check Whether Hail or High Winds Hit Your Address

None of the public storm records below confirms what fell at a single address, so checking yours takes two kinds of evidence: records that show when hail or high wind was reported near you, and marks on the house that show whether that storm reached it. NOAA’s Storm Events Database lets you search official hail and wind records by state, county and date, and the Storm Prediction Center’s daily reports cover storms too recent for the database. Use both to list candidate dates inside your policy period, then let the house itself decide which date fits, because a report near your house shows that a storm passed through, not that your roof was damaged.

Think of the public records as a way to narrow the calendar. The marks on your own house, and then an inspection, are what connect a date to your shingles. If you are still working out what the storm did to the house, start with the storm damage response steps.

Why the Date of Loss Matters Before You Search

Your claim needs a date of loss, and two limits are measured against it. The first is the policy period printed on your declarations page: a policy responds to losses whose date falls inside that period, so the storm date has to land between its start and end dates. The second is the notice and lawsuit time limits set by your policy’s conditions and by state law.

Florida shows how specific those limits can be. Under Florida Statutes section 627.70132 (2026), a claim or reopened claim is barred unless notice is given within 1 year after the date of loss, and a supplemental claim within 18 months. Other states set their own rules; read your policy’s conditions and check with your state insurance department, which you can find through NAIC’s directory of state insurance departments.

Before you search, write down three things: the policy period from the declarations page, the date you first noticed damage or a leak, and any date a neighbor, roofer or insurer mentioned. Those bracket your search.

Search NOAA’s Storm Events Database for Your County

The NOAA Storm Events Database holds the records used to create NOAA’s official Storm Data publication. As of November 7, 2026, it contained data from January 1950 to May 2026, and the period of record differs by event type, so not every kind of event goes back to 1950. The months of lag matter: a storm from last month will not be there yet.

The Storm Events Database User Guide, issued September 12, 2025, explains the search screen. The steps that matter for a roof claim:

1. Select a single state. The guide notes that multi-state searches do not allow county filtering.
2. Choose your county.
3. Enter the start and end dates in MM/DD/YYYY format. Cover the whole policy period, or at least the months before you noticed damage.
4. Choose the hail event type, then run the search again for the wind event types.
5. Open each result and read the Event Narrative, which gives a written summary of the event and can name towns, roads or landmarks.
6. Record each candidate: date, time, location in the narrative, and the reported hail size or wind measurement.

Keep the list even if a result is several miles away. A county record is a lead, not a verdict. Save a screenshot or printout of each record you use, with the date you retrieved it, so the adjuster sees exactly what you saw.

Hypothetical example: a policy runs from the first of March to the end of February, and the homeowner notices a stain in August. A county search for that window returns two hail records, one in May with a narrative naming a town across the county and one in June naming the homeowner’s own neighborhood. Both go on the candidate list, the June record goes first, and the roof inspection decides whether either storm left damage.

Check Recent Storms in SPC Storm Reports

For storms newer than the database, use the NOAA Storm Prediction Center’s daily storm reports, which list tornado, hail and wind reports with locations. The report pages carry this warning: “All Reports Are Considered Preliminary.” Hail sizes appear in hundredths of an inch, so 175 means 1.75 inches; confirm against the legend on the page you are reading.

The SPC’s frequently asked questions define severe hail as at least 1 inch in diameter and explain why the list is incomplete. Reports are collected automatically from local storm reports sent by National Weather Service offices, so a report that was never filed, or was sent more than 10 days late, does not appear. The final data moves to the Storm Events Database months later.

Two practical rules follow. A missing SPC report does not mean no hail fell on your street. And a report that does exist should be rechecked in the Storm Events Database once that month’s data is published.

Radar Estimates and Hail Swath Maps

Hail maps built from radar are easy to find, and they can be useful for spotting a date you had not considered. Treat them as a pointer, not evidence about your roof. Radar sees precipitation inside the storm above the ground, and hail can shrink, melt or drift before it lands. Ask who produced any map you use and whether it is an official NOAA product; its accuracy for a single address is not established, so use it to find dates, not to prove what hit your roof.

If a map suggests a date, check that date in the Storm Events Database or the SPC reports, then add it to your candidate list.

Checking the House Itself

The address-level half of the check happens at your house, and most of it can be done from the ground. For hail, look at the soft metal around the roof: gutters, downspouts, vent caps and window screens. Fresh dents there are the clearest sign that hail reached your property, and dents on one or two sides only fit a storm that came from that direction; hail damage signs shows what to look for on each surface. For wind, look for missing shingles and roofing debris in the yard, and remember that creased tabs can settle back flat and look normal from below; wind damage signs explains how an inspection finds them.

Photograph each mark with a coin for scale and write down the date you first saw it. A dated dent or missing shingle is the evidence the storm records cannot supply, and it is what lets an inspector or adjuster match one of your candidate dates to your house.

What a Storm Record Proves and What It Doesn’t

Each source answers a different question. None of them alone answers whether your roof was damaged.

For what hail damage looks like on shingles, metal and vents, see hail damage signs; for creased, lifted and missing shingles, see wind damage signs. When the inspection finds damage, the inspector or adjuster can compare its age and pattern with your candidate dates.

Which Storm Date Goes on Your Claim?

Put the date that the roof evidence and the storm records both support. If one candidate date has a nearby record and the damage fits that storm’s hail size or wind, that is the date to report as your date of loss. Check that it falls inside the policy period on your declarations page.

If two or more candidates fit, list them for the adjuster with the record for each, and let the inspection narrow it down rather than guessing. If none of the records match, report the date you first noticed the damage and say so plainly. How to file a roof claim covers the filing steps, and if the insurer later disputes the date, what to do when a roof claim is denied explains how to respond.

This guide is general information for U.S. homeowners, not legal, insurance, tax, or engineering advice. Codes, laws, and policy terms vary by location and change over time; confirm details with your local building department, your insurer, or a licensed professional.

Sources

• The 2026 Florida Statutes, 627.70132 Notice of property insurance claim, Florida Legislature
• Insurance Departments, National Association of Insurance Commissioners
• Storm Events Database, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
• Storm Events Database User Guide, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
• SPC Storm Reports, NOAA Storm Prediction Center
• Storm Prediction Center Frequently Asked Questions, NOAA Storm Prediction Center