Recorded events
The wind record for Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach does not get hail in any quantity — five years of radar detections found none within ten miles. It does get wind, on a handful of days a year, and those are the days roofs are lost here.
Three questions about your home
Up to three local contractors, and never more.
Your request is in.
We are matching it now against roofing contractors working in Huntington Beach and the surrounding area.
- Today, usually within the hour. The first contractor calls or texts the number you gave us. ASAP requests go out first.
- Up to three of them, no more. We cap it at three so you can compare without your phone melting.
- They come and look. Estimates are given after somebody has been on the roof, not over the phone.
- You decide, or you do not. There is nothing to cancel and nothing to pay us.
If you do not hear anything today, check your voicemail and spam folder — contractors often call from a mobile number.
The hail record
Across 61 months of NEXRAD records, no hail-bearing storm cell has been detected within ten miles of Huntington Beach. That is normal for this part of California and it is the reason roof claims here are almost always wind, water or age rather than impact.
Wind
Over 5 years of daily records at this location, the highest modelled gust was about 56 mph, below the 58 mph severe threshold but well into the range that finds anything already lifted or loose. There were 22 days above 39 mph and 7 above 45 mph in that period, concentrated in January, February, and March.
| Date | Peak gust |
|---|---|
| 18 February 2026 | 48 mph |
| 6 November 2024 | 56 mph |
| 1 March 2023 | 44 mph |
| 25 February 2023 | 51 mph |
| 12 April 2022 | 42 mph |
| 5 March 2022 | 42 mph |
| 14 December 2021 | 49 mph |
| 11 October 2021 | 51 mph |
What to check afterwards
The soft metal, first
Start with the parts that bruise easily: gutter faces, downspouts, vent hoods, the aluminium trim. They are the network of soft targets around the roof, and they record a hail event more legibly than the shingles do. Clean metal is meaningful evidence.
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.
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
Wind-blown debris is the cause of a surprising share of storm claims, and it is the one kind of damage that is genuinely obvious once somebody looks.
Granules where they should not be
A cupful of granules at the bottom of a downspout after a storm is not proof of impact — roofs shed granules as they age — but a sudden change is worth photographing with the date on it. What matters is the difference from last month, which is why photographing a sound roof now is not a wasted hour.
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.
What it does not mean is that a nearby storm implies damage on your roof. Two houses on one street come out of the same night in completely different condition.
How a roof insurance claim actually works, step by step
About this data
Hail detections come from NOAA NCEI’s Severe Weather Data Inventory (NEXRAD product nx3hail) within 10 miles of Huntington 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.
Storm damage questions
How long do I have to report storm damage?
Your policy sets the limit and it is measured from the loss, not from the discovery. Reporting is not the same as committing to a claim, so if there is any doubt it is usually better to report and then decide.
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?
Hail comes from NOAA’s Severe Weather Data Inventory — radar detections of hail-bearing storm cells within ten miles of Huntington Beach, with an estimated stone size. Wind comes from the ERA5 reanalysis archive as a daily maximum gust at this city’s coordinates. Both are useful for dates and scale. Neither is an observation of your roof, and we do not present them as one.