How Long After HailDo Roof Permits Rise?

Data last changed October 17, 2026. Storm reports are preliminary until the National Weather Service finishes its review. Computed by scripts/permit-hail-lag.mjs in the site repository.

How Is The Lag Measured?

Each hail day comes from the Storm Prediction Center preliminary hail reports of 1 inch or larger in the metro's counties, one file per metro. Each permit comes from the city's open re-roof permit file. Weeks run Monday through Sunday. The window starts at the first Monday on or after the storm file's first date and ends with the last full week inside both files. The weekly median counts every week in that window, including empty weeks. A spike week has more than 2 times that median. For each hail day the lag is the number of days from the hail day to the Monday of the first spike week that starts after it, searched across the next 12 weeks.

One spike week can serve several hail days, so the lags are not separate observations. A hail day with fewer than 12 full weeks of permit data after it and no spike yet is marked not yet observable.

What Do The Permit Files Show For Each City?

What Does The Largest-Stone Column Measure?

The largest-stone column in each city table is the biggest report in that metro's stored storm file for the date. A day enters the file when a report of 1 inch or larger comes from a county in the metro area, so the column starts at a reporting floor and rises from there. One inch is a reporting line in the storm file, and it is not a damage line for a roof.

The National Weather Service hail size table turns a measured diameter into a familiar object, from a pea at a quarter inch to a grapefruit at four and a half inches, and it tells spotters to freeze the stone, measure it and notify the service (read October 25, 2026). A report at the floor therefore says a stone reached that size somewhere in the metro's counties. That is the only claim this page makes about it, and the roof itself has not been inspected.

For an asphalt shingle, the impact rating a manufacturer prints comes from UL 2218. The scope published with that standard sets out what the test leaves out: weather, temperature, aging and similar effects (read October 25, 2026). The same scope notes that no direct correlation is currently established between a roof covering struck by a hailstone and one struck by a steel ball. Owens Corning publishes a list of products it classifies as UL 2218 Class 4 (read October 25, 2026). A footnote to that list says the results do not guarantee resistance to all weather conditions, and its shingle warranty excludes hail damage.

A dent is not the same question as a leak. The International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants calls damage functional when it stops the assembly shedding water, and counts a hail dent cosmetic if it has not split, fractured or punctured the metal or disengaged a seam (read November 1, 2026). An ASTM paper on simulated hail divots in coated steel panels opens with the point that cosmetic damage from hail is often excluded from coverage (read October 25, 2026). The largest stone in a city table is an input to the timing question, and it is not a finding about any roof.

How Big Did The Stones Get In Each Measured City?

The counts below are read from the same stored storm rows the lag tables above use, inside each city's measured window. The first column counts every hail day in that window, the second counts the days whose largest stone reached 1.75 inches, and the third is the biggest stone in the window.

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center preliminary local storm reports, read from each metro's stored file in this repository. The files were built between October 13, 2026 andOctober 17, 2026. The reports are preliminary, because the service publishes a report before its review and a later review can change a size or a location. The 1.75 inch line is the one the stored hail-days file already carries, so the bands here match the site's other hail pages.

What Can You Do While The Permit Week Is Still Ahead?

A spike week is a week in a city file, and the wait before it is time a homeowner can use. The National Roofing Contractors Association tells homeowners to inspect only from ground level, to have every roof a storm crossed looked at regardless of how it appears, and to treat an unusually low bid with caution (read October 25, 2026).

The Insurance Information Institute puts the first steps in a different order from a roofer's: contact your agent or insurance company, make temporary repairs to protect the property, and save the receipts. It also warns about a contractor who asks for a large amount of money up front (read October 25, 2026).

Every state insurance department takes complaints about an insurer, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners publishes the directory (read October 25, 2026). In Texas, the Attorney General's consumer protection division describes its work as accepting complaints, filing civil cases in the public interest and educating Texans on how to spot and avoid possible scams (read October 26, 2026). Those routes exist for a dispute about a claim or a contractor, and they are separate from the permit file a city publishes.

None of these steps changes the permit record. They protect the claim and the property while the city file, which is the timing record this page measures, is still weeks away from showing a spike week.

What Do These Numbers Not Say?

A permit is a filed or issued record. It does not say hail caused the job, and a roofer can start work on a damaged roof before or after the permit date. Cities publish only their own jurisdiction, so a metro's suburbs are outside these counts. The storm files are preliminary reports of hail size in the metro's counties, not a map of which roofs were hit. Where a permit file records the date an application was filed instead of the date a permit was issued, the lag runs from filing.

What Else Do Homeowners Ask About Permits And Hail?

How long after a hailstorm do roofing permits go up?

In the files measured here, where a spike week followed a hail day it started between 2 and 83 days later, and the middle of each city's lags is shown in its table. Many hail days were followed by no spike week at all inside 12 weeks. The data shows timing, and it does not show that a given storm caused a given permit.

What counts as a spike in roofing permits?

A week with more than 2 times the city's median weekly count of re-roof permits over the same window. The median is taken across every week in the window, weeks with no permits included.

Why does a city show no figure?

A city is listed without a figure when it has no open permit file with an issue or filing date and a roof-type filter. The reason is printed beside its name instead of an estimate.

Does a permit week prove hail damage?

No. Permits also follow seasons, deadlines and demand with no storm behind them. The tables show how many spike weeks had a hail day in the weeks before them and how many did not.

Which Guides Should I Read Next?

• How Do I Pick A Roofer After A Storm?: The inspection, the insurance claim steps, the contractor checks and the warning signs, with a public source behind every lookup.
• Metal Roof Vs Shingles: Which Holds Up To Hail?: How impact ratings work, what third-party hail testing covers, and why a dent is not always a leak.
• Hail Damage Roof Repair By Metro In Texas: Hail days and insurer wind and hail losses for every Texas metro on the site, then the inspection, claim steps, contractor checks and warning signs after a storm.

Where Can I Read More Or Run The Numbers?

• Hail days by metro: how many days a year hail of 1 inch or larger was reported, metro by metro.
• Hail claim calculator: run the deductible and depreciation arithmetic on your policy.
• Methodology: how this site researches and sources its numbers.
• How Do I Read A Roofing Estimate?: The lines a roofing estimate should price separately, how to compare bids, and the contract language to refuse.
• Should I Repair Or Replace My Roof?: What decides between a repair and a full replacement, and what an insurer will and will not pay for.
• Metal Roof Vs Shingles: Which Holds Up To Hail?: How impact ratings work, what third-party hail testing covers, and why a dent is not always a leak.
• How Do I Spot A Storm Chaser Roofer?: The door-knock, contract and deductible tells that separate a storm chaser from a local roofer.
• How Do I Pick A Roofer After A Storm?: The inspection, the insurance claim steps, the contractor checks and the warning signs, with a public source behind every lookup.
• Roof Replacement Cost By Metro In Texas: Installed cost per roofing square, city permit valuations and insurer Wind losses for every Texas metro on the site, each figure with its source and date.
• Roof Permit Fees By Metro In Texas: Whether a re-roof needs a permit, the residential fee, who pulls it and the fee schedule behind it for each Texas city on the site, with Not published where a schedule states no flat fee.
• Hail Damage Roof Repair By Metro In Texas: Hail days and insurer wind and hail losses for every Texas metro on the site, then the inspection, claim steps, contractor checks and warning signs after a storm.
• What We Learned Reading BBB Files: what a BBB grade, an accreditation and a complaint count do and do not tell you about a roofer.
• Re-roof permit index for San Antonio: every re-roof permit in the city file, with the holder as recorded.
• Re-roof permit index for Dallas-Fort Worth: every re-roof permit in the city file, with the holder as recorded.
• Re-roof permit index for Austin: every re-roof permit in the city file, with the holder as recorded.
• Hail history in San Antonio: recorded hail reports by year from the NOAA Storm Events database.
• Hail history in Dallas-Fort Worth: recorded hail reports by year from the NOAA Storm Events database.
• Hail history in Houston: recorded hail reports by year from the NOAA Storm Events database.
• Hail history in Austin: recorded hail reports by year from the NOAA Storm Events database.

Where Do These Facts Come From?

1. NOAA Storm Prediction Center, Storm reports. https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/. Fetched 10 October 2026. Daily reports of hail, wind and tornadoes. Same-day reports are preliminary until NCEI publishes its reviewed record.
2. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events database (bulk files). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/swdi/stormevents/csvfiles/. Fetched 10 October 2026. The reviewed record, published with a lag of weeks to months.
3. National Weather Service, Estimating hail size (Boise, Idaho, forecast office). https://www.weather.gov/boi/hailsize. Fetched 25 October 2026. The table turns a hail diameter in inches into a familiar object, from a quarter inch pea to a four and a half inch grapefruit, and the page tells spotters to freeze it, measure it and notify the NWS.
4. UL Standards & Engagement, UL 2218, Impact resistance of prepared roof covering materials (product page with the standard scope). https://shopulstandards.com/ProductDetail.aspx?productId=UL2218. Fetched 25 October 2026. The scope states that the test does not evaluate weathering, temperature, aging or similar effects, and that no direct correlation between the performance of a roof covering hit by hailstones and by steel balls is currently established.
5. Owens Corning, Impact resistance shingles, class rating. https://www.owenscorning.com/en-us/roofing/shingle-class-rating. Fetched 25 October 2026. The page lists the products it classifies as UL 2218 Class 4 and footnotes the list to say the test results do not guarantee the shingle will resist all weather conditions, and that hail damage is specifically excluded from coverage under the shingle warranty.
6. International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants, Fall Exclusive: A Deep Dive into Hail-Caused Dents (a study of corrosion resistance within dents in Galvalume-coated steel roof panels). https://iibec.org/publication-post/fall-exclusive-a-deep-dive-into-hail-caused-dents-a-study-of-corrosion-resistance-within-dents-in-galvalume-coated-steel-roof-panels/. Fetched 1 November 2026. Defines functional damage as damage, typically dents or deformations, that reduces the roof assembly’s ability to shed water, and says hail-caused dents that have not split, fractured or punctured the metal, or otherwise compromised its ability to resist moisture intrusion such as by disengaging a seam, are cosmetic.
7. ASTM International, New research on hail damage to Al-Zn alloy coated steel roofing (STP1650). https://store.astm.org/stp165020220099.html. Fetched 25 October 2026. The abstract describes two Metal Building Manufacturers Association projects on simulated hail divots in coated steel panels, and opens with the point that cosmetic damage due to hail is often excluded from coverage.
8. National Roofing Contractors Association, Storm damage repair caution for homeowners and business owners (July 27, 2022). https://www.nrca.net/RoofingNews/nrca-urges-homeowners-and-business-owners-affected-by-severe-weather-to-use-caution-when-repairing-their-roof-systems.7-27-2022.10442/details/story. Fetched 25 October 2026. The release says a roof system inspection should be done only from ground level, that every roof a storm passed over should be inspected whatever it looks like, and that a consumer should keep a healthy skepticism about the lowest bid.
9. Insurance Information Institute, Settling insurance claims after a disaster. https://www.iii.org/article/settling-insurance-claims-after-a-disaster. Fetched 25 October 2026. The first steps it lists are to contact your agent or company, make temporary repairs to protect the property and save the receipts. It also warns about contractors who ask for a large amount of money up front.
10. National Association of Insurance Commissioners, State insurance departments. https://content.naic.org/state-insurance-departments. Fetched 25 October 2026. The directory of state insurance departments, each of which takes a complaint about an insurer. The page describes the association as supporting state insurance commissioners who regulate the industry.
11. Texas Attorney General, Consumer Protection. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection. Fetched 26 October 2026. The division describes its work as accepting complaints, filing civil cases in the public interest and educating Texans on how to spot and avoid possible scams.
12. Best Roofers Ranked methodology. How the site researches and ranks roofers. Rates and counts on metro pages carry their own dated sources.