Byers Forensic Weather & Hail Impact Report

Look, I’ve been replacing roofs up here for over twenty years, and if there’s one thing I tell every homeowner in Byers, it’s that you’re sitting right in the bullseye. We’re tucked into that open stretch of the Red River Valley, which means there’s nothing but flat farmland between us and the storms rolling up from the southwest. When a supercell starts spinning up near Wichita Falls and heads our way, it doesn’t break apart on any hills or tree lines—it just barrels across the prairie, and Byers is the first big patch of rooftops it hits. That flat terrain acts like a wind tunnel, and I’ve seen straight-line gusts here that’ll peel shingles right off a deck like they’re nothing but stickers.

And it’s not just the wind—it’s the hail that comes with it. Our severe season really gets going in April and May, but we’ve had monster hailstorms as late as October, and they’re almost always the big, heavy stones. Because we’re so far north and exposed, those storms have time to build up that massive updraft, so you’re not getting pea-sized pellets; you’re getting golf balls and sometimes baseballs coming down at a slant, driven by that 70-mile-an-hour wind. I’ve pulled up brand-new architectural shingles that looked like someone took a hammer to them, and the real kicker is that the damage isn’t always obvious from the ground. You might just see a few missing tabs, but the impact is bruising the mat underneath, and a year later that’s where you get the leaks. Trust me, if you’ve got a roof that’s over ten years old, you’re not gambling on if it’ll get hit—you’re just gambling on when.