Why It Matters to Know the Difference
After a severe storm, your roof may have been hit by wind, hail, or both — and understanding which type of damage you’re dealing with matters more than you might think. Insurance adjusters look for specific damage patterns to confirm what caused the problem, and the type of damage can affect your coverage, your claim amount, and the repair approach your contractor recommends.
Wind and hail often come together in the same storm, and it’s common for a roof to have both types of damage simultaneously. Learning to recognize each pattern helps you have more informed conversations with your roofer and your insurance company, and ensures that all damage gets properly documented and covered.
How Wind Damages Your Roof
Wind damage follows predictable patterns that differ significantly from hail. Strong winds don’t hit your roof uniformly — they create areas of high pressure and suction, particularly along edges, ridges, and corners. This is why wind damage is typically concentrated along the perimeter of your roof, at the ridge line, and around corners where wind acceleration is strongest.
The telltale signs of wind damage include shingles that are lifted, curled back, or creased along a horizontal line where the wind caught the edge. You may find shingles that have been completely torn off and are lying in the yard or on neighboring property. Wind damage often exposes the underlying felt paper or underlayment in strips or patches, particularly along the edges where shingles were peeled back by the wind’s force.
How Hail Damages Your Roof
Hail damage creates an entirely different pattern. Because hailstones fall more or less vertically (with some wind-driven angle), they hit the entire roof surface in a random pattern. The resulting damage appears as scattered, circular impact marks across the roof plane — there’s no concentration at edges or ridges, and the hits are distributed randomly rather than in lines or strips.
On asphalt shingles, hail impacts create dark spots where the protective granules have been knocked loose, exposing the asphalt layer underneath. These spots are typically round or oval, feel soft compared to undamaged areas, and may show a slight indentation. The size and severity of the impacts correlate directly with the size of the hailstones — larger stones create bigger, more obvious marks.
Checking Other Surfaces for Clues
Your roof isn’t the only surface that tells the story of what happened during a storm. Soft metals are particularly good indicators of hail. Check your aluminum gutters, downspouts, window frames, and air conditioning unit for dent patterns. If these surfaces show circular dents, you can be confident that hail hit your property — and your roof took the same hits.
For wind evidence, look at your fence, siding, and outdoor structures. Wind damage often leaves debris trails, breaks tree limbs from one direction, and damages siding on the windward side of your home. Your car can also be an indicator: hail creates roof and hood dents, while wind typically doesn’t damage vehicles but may throw debris against them.
Why Both Types Need Professional Assessment
Here’s what makes storm damage tricky: wind and hail together cause more damage than either one alone. Wind can lift a shingle edge, and then hail strikes the exposed underlayment underneath. Or hail weakens a shingle’s seal strip, making it vulnerable to the next windstorm. These combination damage scenarios are common in the Midwest and require an experienced eye to fully assess.
At Best Roofing Pros, our inspectors are trained to identify and document both wind and hail damage patterns — and to explain the interaction effects that make storm damage worse than any single factor. We create comprehensive reports that clearly identify each type of damage, which helps insurance adjusters approve the full scope of repairs needed. Call 877-513-4946 for your free storm damage assessment.