Wellington Forensic Weather & Hail Impact Report

You know, living here in Wellington, we’re kind of sitting right in the bullseye for some nasty weather, and it’s not just bad luck. We’re tucked right up against the foothills, and that geography acts like a funnel for spring and early summer storms. The warm, moist air coming up from the south slams into the cooler air bouncing off the mountains, and that collision creates these supercell thunderstorms that just park right over us. And because we’re on the high plains, there’s nothing to break up the wind—it comes howling down the Front Range with nothing in its way. So when those storms roll through, usually between April and June, we get these massive, marble-sized hailstones driven sideways by 60 or 70 mile-per-hour gusts. That combination is brutal on a roof.

What really gets me is how the hail hits here specifically. It’s not just the size of the stones, though we’ve seen some doozies; it’s the angle. The wind is so consistent and strong that the hail isn’t falling straight down—it’s being blasted at your shingles almost horizontally. That tears the granules right off the asphalt, and it can bruise the mat underneath, which you can’t even see from the ground. Then, the wind itself is a double whammy. It’ll lift the edges of those damaged shingles and peel them back, or it’ll catch loose flashing around your chimney or vents and rip it clean off. I’ve seen roofs that look fine from the street, but up close, they’re just peppered and compromised. Honestly, after a big storm blows through here, it’s not a matter of *if* you have damage—it’s a matter of how much you can’t see yet.