Dilley Forensic Weather & Hail Impact Report

Look, I’ve been roofing here for over twenty years, and if there’s one thing I tell every homeowner in Dilley, it’s that we’re sitting right in the bullseye of Texas’s worst weather. We’re smack in the middle of the I-35 hail alley, where cold fronts from the north slam into that hot, humid air rolling up from the Gulf. When those two meet, especially in the spring months of April and May, the sky turns that sickly green and we get these supercell storms that just park right over us. The hail isn’t those little pea-sized pebbles either—we routinely see golf ball and even baseball-sized stones coming down sideways with 60 to 70 mile-per-hour winds. That combination is a roof’s worst nightmare because the wind lifts the shingles up just enough for the hail to hammer the exposed, brittle underside, and before you know it, you’ve got granule loss and cracks you can’t see from the ground.

What makes Dilley even more unique is our flat, open geography. There’s no hill or tree line to break up that wind, so it comes across the brush country with nothing to slow it down. I’ve seen storms that look like they’re going to fizzle out, and then the next thing you know, the wind shifts and it’s ripping shingles clean off the ridge like they’re paper. And it’s not just spring—we get those surprise October and November storms too, when everyone’s let their guard down after the summer heat. The real kicker is that our intense sun and heat during the summer makes the asphalt brittle, so by the time that first fall hailstorm hits, your roof is already weakened and ready to crack. That’s why I always tell folks here, if you hear thunder, you better check your gutters for granules the next morning, because chances are, your roof took a beating even if it looks fine from the driveway.