Cleburne Forensic Weather & Hail Impact Report

Look, I’ve been replacing roofs in Johnson County for over twenty years, and if there’s one thing I can tell you about Cleburne, it’s that we’re sitting right in the bullseye for springtime hail. You see those storms rolling in from the southwest, they build up over the Hill Country and then hit that warm, moist air coming up from the Gulf, and they just explode right on top of us. We get these supercell thunderstorms that drop hail the size of golf balls—sometimes even baseballs—and the wind that comes with them isn’t just a straight-line gust, it’s a swirling mess that lifts shingles right off the deck. The geography here, with all the open ranch land and rolling hills, gives that wind nothing to break it up, so it just hammers your roof from every angle at once.

And it’s not just a one-and-done deal either. Our severe weather season runs from March all the way through June, but I’ve seen rogue hail storms pop up in October and even February when you least expect it. The problem is, most folks think a little pea-sized hail is no big deal, but that’s the sneaky stuff—it bruises the shingles and knocks the granules off, and then the summer sun bakes them brittle. By the time the next big storm hits, that roof is already compromised, and the wind just peels it back like a sardine can. I’ve pulled off three-layer roofs in this town where the bottom layer was still the original from the 80s, and every single one of them was a total loss because of one bad storm. You’re not just dealing with weather here; you’re dealing with a pattern that’s specifically designed to tear up your house.