Graham Forensic Weather & Hail Impact Report

Look, I’ve been replacing roofs in Young County for over twenty years, and I can tell you that Graham sits right in a bullseye for some of the nastiest spring weather in North Texas. We’re nestled right in that rolling hill country where the Brazos River cuts through, and those hills and valleys act like a funnel for storm cells that build up to the southwest. When a supercell rolls off the Caprock and hits that warmer, wetter air hanging over the river bottoms, it just explodes. We get these massive, slow-moving hailers that sit right on top of town, dropping golf-ball-sized stones for twenty minutes straight, and the wind that comes with them isn’t just a straight-line gust—it’s a swirling, chaotic mess that lifts shingles right off the deck before the hail even gets a chance to pummel them.

And it’s not just a one-and-done deal in the spring. Sure, April and May are our worst months, but we also get those surprise October and November storms that catch everyone off guard. The problem is the combination of heat and humidity in the summer baking those asphalt shingles until they’re brittle, and then a cold front slams in with 70-mile-an-hour winds. A shingle that’s been cooked at 110 degrees for four months loses its grip, and when that wind gets under the edge, it peels it back like a sardine can. Then the hail comes in and hits that exposed underlayment, and before you know it, you’ve got water running down your interior walls. It’s not a matter of *if* you’ll get hit hard here—it’s a matter of *when*, and I’ve seen brand-new roofs get destroyed within six months of installation because folks didn’t take that first big storm seriously.