Rand Forensic Weather & Hail Impact Report

You know, living here in Rand, we’re right in that sweet spot where the mountains and the high plains collide, and that’s exactly what gets us into trouble. The weather systems that roll off the Continental Divide don’t just fizzle out—they get squeezed and sped up as they drop down into the valley, which makes for some incredibly violent updrafts. Those updrafts are what keep hailstones bouncing around in the clouds like popcorn, letting them grow to the size of golf balls or even baseballs before they finally come crashing down. And because we’re at such a high elevation, the air is thin and dry, so the hail doesn’t soften or melt much on its way down. It hits your roof with the force of a hammer, and if you’ve got an older asphalt shingle, it’s going to bruise the matting and knock the granules right off, leaving you with bare spots that will bake in the summer sun.

Then, on top of the hail, we get those infamous chinook winds that scream down the eastern slope, especially in the late winter and early spring. It’s not unusual for us to see gusts of 70 or 80 miles an hour, and when that wind gets under a shingle that’s already been cracked or lifted by a hailstorm, it acts like a crowbar. One good gust will peel that tab right back, and once the wind gets a foothold, it can rip a whole section of decking clean off. The real kicker is that our storm season isn’t just one month—we get these severe cells from May all the way through September, and sometimes a rogue one in October. So it’s not a matter of *if* your roof is going to take a beating, it’s a matter of *when*, and I’ve seen too many folks in this area wait until the water is dripping into their living room to give me a call.