Miles Forensic Weather & Hail Impact Report

Look, I’ve been replacing roofs out here for over twenty years, and if there’s one thing I can tell you about Miles, it’s that we’re sitting right in the bullseye for hail. You see the way the land rolls flat out toward the west? That’s our problem. Those spring storms build up over the Edwards Plateau and come barreling down the I-20 corridor with nothing to break them up—no hills, no tree lines, just open ranch land. By the time they hit our side of Runnels County, the updrafts are spinning like crazy, and that’s when you get those marble-to-baseball-sized stones falling sideways at sixty miles an hour. It’s not a matter of *if* you’ll get hit, it’s a matter of *when*, and I’ve seen brand-new architectural shingles look like someone took a shotgun to them after one May thunderstorm.

And the wind is just as sneaky. We don’t get the big coastal hurricanes, but those dry-line storms that roll through in April and June pack straight-line gusts that’ll peel a ridge cap right off if it’s not nailed down just right. The heat out here in the summer bakes the asphalt, making it brittle, so when that first cold front slams in come October, the shingles are already stressed and ready to crack. Plus, with all the open prairie, there’s nothing to slow that wind down—it hits your roofline like a freight train, especially on the west-facing slopes. I’ve pulled off plenty of tarps after a storm and seen the decking exposed because the wind got under a lifted tab and just kept peeling. It’s a tough environment, and honestly, if you’re not thinking about your roof before the season starts, you’re going to be thinking about it a whole lot more after.