Recorded events
Hail and wind recorded near Newport Beach
Radar has picked up hail-bearing storm cells within ten miles of Newport Beach on one day: 5 October 2021. Here is what was recorded, and what is worth checking as a result.
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What the radar recorded
The most recent detection was on 5 October 2021, about 5 years ago. Radar sized the largest stone in that cell at about 1.0 inches, at or above the one-inch line the trade treats as the threshold for claimable impact damage on asphalt. The nearest cell was about 9.4 miles away, which is close enough to be worth checking and far enough that it may have missed the house entirely.
| Date | Largest stone sized by radar | Nearest cell | Cells that day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 October 2021 | 1.0 in | 9.4 mi | 1 |
The wind record
Over 5 years of daily records at this location, the highest modelled gust was about 53 mph, below the 58 mph severe threshold but well into the range that finds anything already lifted or loose. There were 35 days above 39 mph and 15 above 45 mph in that period, concentrated in January, February, and March.
| Date | Peak gust |
|---|---|
| 18 February 2026 | 53 mph |
| 13 March 2025 | 47 mph |
| 20 January 2025 | 47 mph |
| 7 January 2025 | 47 mph |
| 6 November 2024 | 51 mph |
| 29 October 2023 | 47 mph |
| 22 February 2023 | 52 mph |
| 11 October 2021 | 49 mph |
What to check afterwards
Flashing, chimneys and skylights
Most storm leaks are not through the field of the roof. They are at a junction — a chimney, a skylight, a wall abutment, a valley — where something is meant to be sealed and is not any more. Wind opens those seams before it opens anything else.
Inside, before outside
Go into the attic on a bright day with the lights off. Daylight through the deck, fresh staining on the sheathing, or a rust track down a nail shank all say water got in. The attic shows it long before a ceiling does, and dated photographs of it are worth a great deal later.
What landed on it
A branch across the roof does damage twice: once on impact and once by sitting there holding water against the covering. Get it off, photograph where it was, and look at what is underneath before deciding it was nothing.
What the street is doing
Neighbourhoods built at once wear out at once, so a run of work on one street is often a cohort reaching its age rather than a storm. Both are worth knowing about; they are not the same thing.
The ridge and the edges
Ridge caps sitting proud, a line of shingles along the rake that no longer lies flat, a lifted starter course at the eave: these are wind signatures, and each one is an opening for the next storm rather than a cosmetic complaint.
The claim window
Every policy sets a period within which a loss has to be reported, measured from the event rather than from the discovery. That is the practical reason a dated record of local storms is useful to a homeowner at all.
Reporting is not the same as committing. A claim that turns out to be below the deductible can be withdrawn, and finding out the scale of the damage before filing is generally the right order.
The full guide to how a roof claim works
Sources, and what they can and cannot tell you
Hail detections come from NOAA NCEI’s Severe Weather Data Inventory (NEXRAD product nx3hail) within 10 miles of Newport Beach. Radar sizes hail in a storm cell; it does not observe what landed on any particular roof. Gust figures are daily maxima from the ERA5 reanalysis archive at this city’s coordinates, which is a model of the weather rather than a reading from an instrument in the neighbourhood. Both are useful for dates and for scale, and neither is evidence about your roof. Last refreshed 2026-08-31.
Commonly asked
There was a storm near me. Do I have damage?
A recorded storm nearby is a reason to have the roof looked at, not evidence that anything happened to it. The useful first check costs nothing: dents in the soft metal around the roof, and a look in the attic on a bright day.
Where do the storm dates on this site come from?
They are public federal and reanalysis data for this city’s coordinates rather than anything we measured. Radar sizes hail in a cloud; a reanalysis models wind. They tell you when something happened near here, which is exactly the thing an insurer asks for first and the thing that is hard to reconstruct later.
How long do I have to report storm damage?
Less time than most people assume, and the clock runs from the date of the event rather than from the day you noticed. Policies require prompt notice and set an outer limit on reporting. That is the single most common reason late-discovered damage is denied, and it is why knowing the date of the storm matters.
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