Hail Damage to Central Florida Roofs: What It Looks Like

By the Orlando Roof Inspection team · Updated June 2026 · 7 min read

Yes, Central Florida gets hail. Those summer thunderstorms that roll through every afternoon can drop hailstones big enough to bruise your shingles, crack your tile, and dent soft metal. Here's the catch: hail damage usually looks like nothing from the ground. Your roof can take a real beating and still look perfectly fine, right up until a leak shows up months later. The fix is simple. After a hailstorm, get someone up close to look, and document what's there.

I find most homeowners around Orlando are surprised hail is even a risk here. We think of Florida as hurricane country, not hail country. But the same towering clouds that bring those afternoon downpours carry ice high enough to fall as hail before it melts. In this guide I'll walk you through what that damage looks like on shingle and tile, why it hides so well, and how to document it before you file a claim.

Does Central Florida actually get hail?

It does, and more often than you'd think. Central Florida sits in one of the most active thunderstorm zones in the whole country. Through late spring and summer, strong storms build up tall and freezing cold at the top, and that's exactly where hail forms. When the updraft is strong enough, those ice pellets fall before they get a chance to melt on the way down.

Most of the hail we see locally is small, pea to marble size. But a severe storm can bring stones an inch or bigger, and that's the size that starts doing real harm to a roof. Hail usually rolls in with damaging winds too, so one storm can leave you with both hail bruises and wind-lifted shingles. That's why a storm that looks like it did nothing from the curb still deserves a closer look.

• Peak season is summer. The same heat that fires off our daily thunderstorms feeds the tall clouds that make hail.
• Severe storms matter most. A warned thunderstorm with strong winds is the one most likely to drop hail big enough to hurt your roof.
• Wind and hail travel together. After one storm, plan to check for both.

What hail damage looks like on shingle roofs

On an asphalt shingle roof, hail leaves bruises. A bruise is a soft spot where the stone knocked the protective granules loose and damaged the mat underneath. When I press on one, it feels slightly spongy, a lot like a bruise on a piece of fruit. These spots land random and scattered, and that randomness is what helps me tell them apart from normal wear and tear.

The clearest sign is granule loss. Think of those granules as your roof's sunscreen. When hail knocks them off, the black asphalt underneath is exposed and ages a lot faster. You might spot dark circles on the shingles, or find a pile of granules washed down into the gutters and downspouts after the storm.

• Round dark bruises scattered with no clear pattern across the slope.
• Granules in the gutters or at the bottom of downspouts.
• Soft, dented spots that give slightly when pressed.
• Shiny or exposed asphalt where the granule layer is gone.
• Cracked or bruised flashing around vents and valleys.

Hail damage on shingles is exactly the kind of thing an insurance adjuster wants to see photographed up close, inside a marked test square. A trained inspector knows how to lay that out so it holds up.

What hail damage looks like on tile roofs

Tile is tougher than shingle, but it's not hailproof. Concrete and clay tile both crack and chip when a stone hits hard enough. The trouble is the damage often hides on the upper surface of the tile, where you'd never catch it standing in your yard, and even a hairline crack can let water sneak through to the underlayment below.

On tile roofs I'm looking for chipped edges, spider-web cracks, and broken corners. A cracked tile can keep shedding most of the rain for a while, which is exactly why the leak might not show up until long after the storm that caused it. The table below sums up how hail tends to show itself on each roof type.

A cracked tile doesn't always mean a full tear-off. Plenty of hail-damaged tile roofs just need targeted tile replacement and some underlayment repair, and a documented inspection helps you justify that to your carrier.

Soft metal markers and other clues

Some of the best hail evidence isn't on your roof covering at all. Hail dents the soft metal all around your home, and those dents are easy to count and photograph. Adjusters call these soft metal markers, and they help confirm that hail actually fell at your address, and roughly how big it was.

• Dented vents, valleys, and flashing on the roof.
• Dings in gutters and downspouts, especially on the storm-facing side.
• Dents on AC fins, mailboxes, and metal fascia at ground level.
• Splatter marks on chalky or dusty surfaces where stones hit.

When the soft metal shows fresh dents, that's strong proof the bruising on your shingles or the cracks in your tile came from the same hail event, not just years of normal wear.

Why hail damage is hard to see from the ground

This is the part that catches almost everyone off guard. Hail rarely punches a clean hole through a roof. Instead it weakens the surface in small spots you simply can't see from the driveway. Your roof can look perfectly normal and still be carrying dozens of bruises that will shorten its life and eventually leak.

A few things make it hard to spot:

• The damage is small and scattered. Bruises and hairline cracks just blend into the roof from any distance.
• Steep and high roofs hide the upper slopes. The worst hits are usually right where you can't see them.
• Leaks lag behind. Water can take weeks or even months to work its way through to your ceiling.
• Glare and shade fool the eye. A dent only shows up clearly when the light hits it right.

This is exactly where a close-up inspection earns its keep. By safely walking the roof, or flying a drone roof inspection over the steep sections, an inspector can see and photograph everything the ground hides. Our drone and infrared tools can even flag trapped moisture before it ever becomes a visible leak.

When to inspect and document for a claim

Time really matters with hail claims. Florida insurance policies set deadlines for reporting storm damage, and the longer you wait, the harder it gets to prove a specific storm caused it. So when a severe storm passes over your area, plan to get the roof checked, even if nothing looks wrong from down below.

1. Inspect soon after the storm. Get a close-up look on the calendar within days, not months.
2. Photograph everything. Bruises, cracks, granules in the gutters, dented soft metal, it all builds your case.
3. Note the storm date. Carriers tie damage back to a specific event, so the date you report really matters.
4. Get a written report. A dated, photo-backed report from a licensed inspector carries real weight with an adjuster.
5. File before deadlines. Don't let the reporting window close while you're still making up your mind.

A clear inspection report protects you either way. If there's real hail damage, you've got the proof to back up a claim. If the roof checks out fine, you've got a dated record of its condition, which helps with future coverage down the road. The national roofing trade group NRCA also publishes solid general guidance on storm damage and roof maintenance that's worth a read.