Hail damage in Florida: how to document it while the evidence lasts

The first 24–72 hours

1. Stay inside, away from windows, until 30 minutes after the last thunder Safety

   Hail falls from thunderstorms, and the lightning that comes with it is the greater danger. The National Weather Service says to stay away from windows and doors and off porches while the storm is overhead, and to wait at least 30 minutes after the last sound of thunder before going outside. Do not go to a window to film the hail. Note the time it started and the time it stopped from wherever you are; both go into your timeline.^[7]

2. Measure and photograph the stones before they melt

   Once the 30 minutes after the last thunder have passed, pick up several of the largest stones you can find, put them on a flat surface next to a ruler, a tape measure or a coin, and photograph them from above. The Storm Prediction Center asks for measurement, not estimation, of hail size, and the same discipline makes your own record credible. Then put a few stones in a freezer bag, write the date, time and address on the bag and freeze it.^[1]

3. Photograph the spatter marks on hard surfaces within hours

   Hail hitting a dry driveway, deck, patio or car cover leaves wet circular marks that vanish as the surface dries. After the wait, photograph them wide, so the pattern across the surface is visible, then close with a coin in the frame. These are the fastest fading evidence you have of how dense the fall was.

4. Write down when it started, when it stopped and where you were

   Record the start and end time as closely as you know them, the address, and where in the house you were. If you were away, write “unknown” for the times and note when you returned and found the marks. The storm reports you look up later are listed by time, so your own times need to be honest.^[2]

5. Do not climb onto the roof Safety

   Photograph the roof from the ground, from upstairs windows and from a neighbour’s vantage point if they allow it. OSHA describes falls as among the most common causes of serious work related injuries and deaths, and requires fall protection from four feet in general industry workplaces. A wet roof after a hailstorm is exactly that hazard. Leave the close inspection to a roofer with the right equipment and see the roof damage guide.^[4]

What to photograph and record, in the order it disappears

Hail damage is unusual because its best evidence is on the ground, not on the house. The stones themselves, the spatter they leave and the dents they put into soft metal each fade at a different speed. The table below lists each piece of evidence, how long it lasts and how to capture it, so you can spend the first hour on what will be gone by the evening.

Measuring hail size honestly

The Storm Prediction Center encourages measurement, not estimation, of hail size, and publishes a table that relates diameter in inches to everyday objects. Use it in two ways. If you have a ruler, measure the largest stones and write the size in inches. If you only have your memory or a photo without a scale, pick the closest object from the table and write that object, not a number you did not measure.^[1]

^[1]

Record the largest size you measured and the typical size separately; a fall of mostly pea-sized hail with a handful of larger stones is a different event from a uniform fall of large stones, and a reader needs to know which you saw. The NWS page “Estimating Winds and Hail Size in Thunderstorms” is the spotter reference for both hail and wind; its wind table pairs speeds with the damage each produces, which helps you record wind damage that arrived with the hail as a separate fact.^[3]

Witness marks: the dents that date the storm

Roofers use the phrase “witness marks” for the dents that hail leaves in surfaces softer than a shingle. Gutters, downspouts, the fins on an air conditioner condenser, window screens, a mailbox, a grill lid, a metal shed roof and painted wood trim all take a dent that a shingle may hide. Those dents matter because they are consistent with each other: hail of one size on one day leaves dents of one size, on the sides of the house that faced the storm, and does not leave them on the sheltered sides.

• Photograph each soft-metal surface square on, with a coin resting in or next to a dent for scale, and name the surface and the side of the house in the caption.
• Photograph the sheltered sides too. A downspout with no dents on the lee side is as much a record as a dented one on the windward side.
• Photograph the AC condenser fins from the top and each side; do not push on them or try to straighten them before the photos are taken.

Witness marks weather slowly, so they survive even if you could not photograph the stones. Take the photos in the first days anyway: repairs, painting and a new gutter all remove them.

Build the timeline and cross-check it with official storm reports

The Storm Prediction Center publishes preliminary storm reports with tornado, hail and wind entries by time, size, location, county and state. Past dates are reached by date in YYMMDD form, the data goes back to June 1999, and each day’s reports run from 1200 UTC to 1159 UTC the next day, so a late-evening Florida storm may appear under the following day’s page. Find the report page for your storm, look for hail entries in your county, and take a screenshot with the date visible. The reports are preliminary and may not list your street; treat them as context for your own timeline, not as a replacement for it.^[2]

Inventory, vehicles and receipts

The hail inventory is short compared with a flood or a fire, and that is why it is easy to get wrong. List each damaged exterior element as its own row: each gutter run, each downspout, the condenser, each screen, each skylight, each named roof slope. Where a manufacturer, model or installation date is known, record it; where it is not, write “unknown”. Florida DFS recommends an itemised list with costs, purchase dates and serial numbers, and receipts for big-ticket items, which for hail usually means the air conditioner and any recent roof work.^[5]

• Keep vehicle dents in a separate log with their own photos. A car is documented for the same storm, but it is a different property with a different insurer, and mixing it into the house inventory confuses both records.
• Keep any invoice for a previous roof replacement or gutter installation; it shows the age of the surface that was hit.
• Log tarp, screen and glass receipts as paid receipts, and roofing quotes as estimates, in separate rows.

Florida DFS also tells storm-affected homeowners to keep all receipts, including temporary repairs. Whether a cost is reimbursed is a policy question ClaimPrep does not answer; the receipt is still part of the record.^[5]

Keeping the evidence

Hail evidence is mostly photographs and a bag in the freezer, so the risk is losing files rather than losing objects. Keep the originals with their metadata, and copy them somewhere off the phone the same day. Name each file or caption with the surface, the side of the house and the date so a reader can tell the north gutter from the south one.

• Leave the bagged stones in the freezer until whoever inspects the damage has seen the photos; the photos with a ruler are the primary record, the stones are a backup.
• Save the storm report screenshot with the page URL and the date it was taken written in the file name or caption.
• Keep the roofer’s written inspection with its date and the slope names it uses, and use the same slope names in your own captions.

What to document

What your documentation report will contain

A ClaimPrep documentation report organises what you recorded into these sections. It records facts; it does not value your loss or interpret your policy.

• Claim Summary
• Property Details
• Damage Summary
• Timeline of Events
• Affected Areas
• Detailed Documentation
• Mitigation Actions
• Documented Details
• Additional Documentation
• Photo Documentation

See a sample documentation report (a fictional example) or read how ClaimPrep works.

Who to contact

Your insurance company or agent

They receive notice of the loss and explain their own process; write the date, the time and the name of the person you spoke to into your timeline.

Florida DFS Insurance Consumer Helpline, 1-877-MY-FL-CFO (1-877-693-5236), out of state (850) 413-3089

State consumer help for insurance questions, available 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST, Monday through Friday; have your company name, policy number and agent name ready.^[6]

A licensed roofing contractor

They inspect the roof surface that you cannot safely see from the ground; ask for a written, dated report that names each slope, and log it as an estimate or an inspection, not a payment.

Your vehicle insurer, if a car was dented

A vehicle is a separate property with its own record; they will tell you what they need for the car, and your separate vehicle log is where that goes.

Common documentation mistakes

Estimating the hail size from memory as “golf ball” without a photo or a measurement

Photograph the stones next to a ruler or a coin while they exist, and write the measured size; use the SPC object table only for stones you actually saw.

Photographing the gutters at noon and finding no dents in the pictures

Shoot in low, angled light or with a flashlight held to one side so the dents cast shadows, with a coin in frame.

Climbing onto a wet roof to photograph shingles

Photograph from the ground and from windows, name the slopes, and leave the surface inspection to a roofer with fall protection.

Adding the car’s dents to the house inventory

Keep a separate vehicle log with its own photos; the storm is the same, the property and the insurer are not.

Changing your own start time to match the storm report

Write both times side by side; the reports are preliminary and cover a whole county, your entry is what you observed.

Questions