State Farm paid more than $2.7 billion for 2018 hail losses
*Based on 2018 State Farm audits and Homeowners insurance paid claim amounts
“Hailstorms are not the most expensive storm per event but are the most common of damaging perils. Each year thousands of homes and businesses are damaged by hail. They usually cover a wide area and vary in size from location to location. In fact, in 2018 State Farm paid more than 2.7 billion on approximately 280,000 auto and home claims for which they provided the image above.
“There are approximately 3,000 hailstorms each year in the United States. The largest hailstone ever recorded in the US was 8 inches in diameter and weighed nearly 2 pounds. It fell in Vivian, South Dakota on July 23, 2010. I actually investigated a loss in Oklahoma City in 2011 where the hail was so large it broke through the asphalt shingles, through the 1×8 solid wood planks, through the insulation and sheetrock and lastly breaking the glass table in the living room. The customer had saved the hailstones; they were the size of softballs and appeared to be hard as a rock. In that same storm a jogger was saved when a passerby let him into their car as he was being plummeted by hail. Images of his battered back and shoulders made the news. It’s rare for people to be killed by hail; the last reported case of a death by a hailstorm was in 2000 when a young man was struck on the head by a softball-sized hailstone.
“It goes without saying that most hail is hard. It is hard because the super cooled raindrops are being sucked upward into freezing cold conditions within the supercell thunderstorm. Depending on the storm, the updrafts become like a popcorn maker recycling the hail until the updraft can no longer support the weight of the hailstone and it falls to the ground. I have noticed that the taller the anvil cloud, the larger the hail usually is.
“In April of 2016 I was traveling back from Abilene, Texas after conducting inspections for hail damage and noticed a large cumulus anvil cloud headed for the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I looked at the aviation app on my phone and noticed the tops were 50,000 feet tall! I called one of my expert buddies and told him to watch out as this was going to be a big one. That storm produced hail over 4 inches in diameter crushing the city of Wylie, Texas and other parts of the metroplex. As an expert it is important to try to determine the size of hail, the direction of the storm path and if it has been wind driven or not.
“Many believe that the indention in soft metals is the actual size of the hail, but this is far from true. Often, hail is hard, so it stays intact when it impacts an object, especially if that object has some give to it like soft metals. Aluminum vents or caps are very soft and you can damage them with little effort, so they are great for determining the hail size that fell on the roof. Let’s consider the facts, most hail is round and looks a lot like a ball, thus the examples of size like baseball, softball, golf ball or dime size make sense. The impact area on a ball, whether it is small or large, is much smaller than the actual size of the ball. If you take a 2 ½” baseball and throw it against an HVAC unit, the size of the impact will be approximately 1/3 of the size of the ball. Some experts take several ball shapes with them to verify the approximate size of the hail. I will often use a tile comb to see the couture of the damage.
“So, what size hail damages roofs? This is a heated and much contested discussion. My answer is: it depends on many factors.
“Many years ago, I met an expert from an insurance company on an older Thermoplastic Polyolefin roof (TPO.) The hail size was fairly small, 1 to 1 ¼ inches, but the winds had been crazy. We both agreed the entire roof had to be replaced because the damage was so severe. Some individuals in our industry have gone as far as to publish “threshold hail size” that could damage a roof depending on the roof type. This is ridiculous as there are too many factors with every roof to consider. In fact, some hail is jagged or have spikes so even a smaller hailstone can penetrate the toughest of roofs.
“Here is a list of factors that make a roof more susceptible to hail damage:
- Age of roof
- Type of roofing materials
- Exposure of the membrane (gravel displacement/ granular loss)
- Environment (chemicals, seaside, etc.)
- Manufacture defects
- Improper installation
- Wet insulation
- Wind driven”
Taken from the best-selling book, Storm Damage Assessment: A Practical Guide for Assessing Storm Damage by Don Lamont, which can be purchased here: tinyurl.com/stormdamageassessment