What's in a storm report

What a RoofQuery storm report contains: hail and wind by distance, date of loss, damage chance, confidence, the parcel and owner, and the five PDFs.

How it worksStorm reports Last updated Markdown

A storm report is the weather history of one address: every day in the last five years when hail, damaging wind, a tornado or flooding was recorded within 5 miles, with the evidence for each. It comes back as JSON in the response that orders it, and as five PDFs you can brand and send.

Storm reports are in open beta. They are available to every account and billed as normal, but the report format and data structure may change. Changes are announced in the changelog first.

What does a storm report cover?

Five years at and around the property, out to 5 miles. Radar hail estimates start in October 2020, so the period never reaches further back than the radar data does. The sources are joined per storm day: radar hail from NOAA, storm reports from the National Weather Service and hail-pad observers, NWS warnings and damage surveys, NOAA Storm Events records, FEMA declarations and the peak gusts at nearby airport stations. Canada has radar hail and stations but no public archive of storm reports or warnings, and its reports say so.

What is in the hail section?

One row per storm date with the largest hail at the property and within 1, 3 and 5 miles, the largest ground report and how far away it was, and the radar swath band the property sat in. A date is listed when 0.75-inch hail reached the property or within 1 mile, or 1-inch hail fell within 3 miles, plus your date of loss. That is the same rule the industry's hail verification reports use, so the table reads the way adjusters expect. Sizes come with their everyday names, penny to softball; the hail size chart lists them.

What is in the wind section?

The strongest wind with a known location within 1, 3 and 5 miles for each date, where it came from (a measured gust, a storm report, an NWS damage survey or a NOAA record), wind damage reports nearby, the peak gust at airports within 10 miles, the warnings that covered the property, and the closest tornado. Dates are listed from 58 mph, the National Weather Service's severe threshold. The wind speed guide explains the numbers.

What do confidence and damage chance mean?

They answer two different questions. Confidence is how sure the data is that the storm reached the property: high when independent sources agree at or very near it, medium for one strong source, low for distant or indirect evidence only. Damage chance is how likely a storm of that size is to have damaged a roof: high for 1.5-inch hail or 75 mph wind within a mile, medium for 1-inch hail nearby or severe wind, low otherwise. It is based on weather data only; an inspection confirms damage.

FieldAnswers
confidenceDid this storm reach the property?
damageChanceWas it big enough to commonly damage roofing?
evidenceWhich sources say so, in plain English

What else is in the JSON?

The field reference is under storm report data.

Which PDFs come with it?

Five, each branded with your logo and colours or a customer's brand profile: Hail Verification and Wind Verification (one page each, for adjusters), Date of Loss, the full Weather History, and a plain-English Homeowner Storm Summary. Which PDF to send compares them.

What does it cost, and when is it free?

$3 from your prepaid balance. If no storm of any kind was recorded within 5 miles in the five years, the report is still delivered and nothing is charged. The weather data is fixed when you order; the date of loss, claim number, insured name and notes can change every time you read or download it, at no extra cost.

Frequently asked questions

How far back does a storm report go?

Five years. Radar hail estimates begin in October 2020, so no report reaches further back than that.

Does a storm report prove a roof was damaged?

No. It describes the weather at and around the property. The damage chance rating says how likely a storm of that size is to damage roofing; only an inspection confirms damage.

What happens if nothing was recorded near the address?

You still get the report, with empty tables and a low damage chance, and you are not charged.

Try it on a real roof

Create an account, generate a sandbox key, and order against the test addresses. Real webhooks, real XML, real PDFs, nothing charged.