Groom 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 Groom, it’s that we’re sitting right in the bullseye of what I call “Hail Alley.” You see, we’re out here on the high plains, flat as a pancake with nothing but open ranchland for miles. When those spring storms roll in from the west, they don’t have any hills or trees to break them up. They just build and build, and by the time they hit us, they’re these massive, angry supercells that drop hail the size of golf balls—sometimes bigger—straight down on our roofs. It’s not a once-in-a-while thing either; we get these hailers from late March all the way through June, and then again in the fall. I’ve seen brand new shingles look like someone took a shotgun to them after a single twenty-minute storm.

And it’s not just the hail, it’s the wind that comes with it. We’re in that corridor where the jet stream dips down, and those storms can produce straight-line winds of 70, 80, even 90 miles an hour without even trying. That kind of wind gets under the edge of your shingles and just peels them back like a sardine can lid. Plus, because we’re so exposed, there’s nothing to slow that wind down before it slams into your roofline. I’ve pulled up shingles that were nailed down perfectly, but the wind was so strong it actually lifted the decking and snapped the nails. It’s a double whammy—the hail weakens the asphalt, and then the wind finishes the job. So when you hear a storm warning on the news, don’t just think about the rain. Think about your roof, because out here, it’s not a matter of *if* it’ll get damaged, it’s a matter of *when*.