Recorded events
Hail and wind recorded near Laguna Woods
Hail is not common here, which is exactly why the days it has happened are worth writing down. Within ten miles of Laguna Woods, on two days: 18 March 2024 and 5 October 2021.
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Hail
The most recent detection was on 18 March 2024, about 2 years ago. Radar sized the largest stone in that cell at about 0.5 inches, small, and unlikely on its own to have marked a sound roof. The nearest cell was about 4.6 miles away, which is close enough to be worth checking and far enough that it may have missed the house entirely.
| Date | Largest stone sized by radar | Nearest cell | Cells that day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 March 2024 | 0.5 in | 4.6 mi | 4 |
| 5 October 2021 | 1.0 in | 1.3 mi | 4 |
The wind record
Over 5 years of daily records at this location, the highest modelled gust was about 53 mph, below the 58 mph severe threshold but well into the range that finds anything already lifted or loose. There were 26 days above 39 mph and 5 above 45 mph in that period, concentrated in January, February, and March.
| Date | Peak gust |
|---|---|
| 8 January 2025 | 50 mph |
| 14 March 2024 | 53 mph |
| 29 October 2023 | 49 mph |
| 25 February 2023 | 50 mph |
| 23 January 2023 | 47 mph |
| 1 January 2023 | 44 mph |
| 2 February 2022 | 44 mph |
| 14 December 2021 | 44 mph |
What to check afterwards
The soft metal, first
Gutters, downspouts, vent caps, and any aluminium fascia are softer than the roof covering and dent before it marks. If there are no dents in the soft metal, there is very probably no impact damage on the shingles either. This is the check an adjuster makes before getting on the roof, and you can make it from the ground.
What landed on it
Wind-blown debris is the cause of a surprising share of storm claims, and it is the one kind of damage that is genuinely obvious once somebody looks.
Granules where they should not be
A cupful of granules at the bottom of a downspout after a storm is not proof of impact — roofs shed granules as they age — but a sudden change is worth photographing with the date on it. What matters is the difference from last month, which is why photographing a sound roof now is not a wasted hour.
Flashing, chimneys and skylights
Most storm leaks are not through the field of the roof. They are at a junction — a chimney, a skylight, a wall abutment, a valley — where something is meant to be sealed and is not any more. Wind opens those seams before it opens anything else.
The ridge and the edges
Wind does not lift a roof from the middle. It gets under an edge — the rake, the eave, the ridge cap — and peels inward from there. Those are the places to look at from the ground with binoculars after a wind event, and they are the places a marginal roof gives up first.
The claim window
Every policy sets a period within which a loss has to be reported, measured from the event rather than from the discovery. That is the practical reason a dated record of local storms is useful to a homeowner at all.
Reporting is not the same as committing. A claim that turns out to be below the deductible can be withdrawn, and finding out the scale of the damage before filing is generally the right order.
The full guide to how a roof claim works
Sources, and what they can and cannot tell you
Hail detections come from NOAA NCEI’s Severe Weather Data Inventory (NEXRAD product nx3hail) within 10 miles of Laguna Woods. Radar sizes hail in a storm cell; it does not observe what landed on any particular roof. Gust figures are daily maxima from the ERA5 reanalysis archive at this city’s coordinates, which is a model of the weather rather than a reading from an instrument in the neighbourhood. Both are useful for dates and for scale, and neither is evidence about your roof. Last refreshed 2026-08-31.
Questions after a storm
How long do I have to report storm damage?
Less time than most people assume, and the clock runs from the date of the event rather than from the day you noticed. Policies require prompt notice and set an outer limit on reporting. That is the single most common reason late-discovered damage is denied, and it is why knowing the date of the storm matters.
Where do the storm dates on this site come from?
Hail comes from NOAA’s Severe Weather Data Inventory — radar detections of hail-bearing storm cells within ten miles of Laguna Woods, with an estimated stone size. Wind comes from the ERA5 reanalysis archive as a daily maximum gust at this city’s coordinates. Both are useful for dates and scale. Neither is an observation of your roof, and we do not present them as one.
There was a storm near me. Do I have damage?
A recorded storm nearby is a reason to have the roof looked at, not evidence that anything happened to it. The useful first check costs nothing: dents in the soft metal around the roof, and a look in the attic on a bright day.
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