Knott Forensic Weather & Hail Impact Report

Look, I’ve been replacing roofs out here for over twenty years, and I can tell you Knott gets hit harder than folks realize. We sit right in that corridor where the dry-line clashes with Gulf moisture, especially in the spring and early summer. Those storms don’t just roll through—they explode right on top of us, with straight-line winds that’ll peel shingles off like they’re stickers. And the hail? It’s not that pea-sized stuff you see in Dallas. We get those big, jagged chunks, sometimes baseball-sized, that come down at an angle with the wind. That combination is the worst thing for a roof because the impact bruises the shingle, and then the wind pries up the edges. Before you know it, the mat is cracked and the granules are in your gutters, and that roof is done even if it doesn’t leak for another six months.

What makes it even trickier is our geography. We’re on that flat, open stretch of the South Plains, so there’s nothing to break up the wind—no hills, no tree lines, just miles of cotton fields. A storm can build up speed from Lubbock and hit us with a full head of steam, and there’s nowhere for that energy to go but straight into your ridge caps and flashing. Plus, we get these secondary hail events in late September and October, right when everyone thinks they’re safe. I’ve seen roofs that survived a May storm get shredded by a small, sneaky October cell that barely showed up on the radar. So if you’ve got a roof that’s over ten years old, or you’ve noticed a few missing tabs after a storm, don’t wait for the next one—because out here, the next one is always just a few weeks away.