Hail Season

Hail Season — November 3, 2026

Hail Season — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 17:00:00 -0600

Episode topic: The First 48 Hours After a Storm. Storm damage, roofs, and insurance claims, explained plainly: what to check, what to photograph, and what to say when you call it in. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Transcript: HOST_1: Welcome to Hail Season. I'm Rick Ostrowski. I've walked more Twin Cities roofs after storms than I can count, and the pattern never changes: the damage is done in twenty minutes, and the mistakes are made in the next two days. HOST_2: And I'm Jen Kowalczyk, your claims translator. I used to sit on the insurance side of the table, and now I translate it. Today: the first forty-eight hours after a storm. What to check, what to photograph, and what to say when you call it in. That is the show's line, and this episode is the show in one hour of your life. HOST_1: Hour zero is not about the roof. It is about safety. Downed lines, a tree on a fence, a branch through a deck: electricity and gravity outrank shingles every time. If water is actively coming into the house, that is the one emergency a roof ever has, and the fix for the first night is a tarp or a bucket and a call, not a ladder. I have stood in too many yards where a homeowner climbed a wet roof at dusk to look at hail marks. There is nothing up there that cannot wait for daylight and dry shingles. A hail-dented roof is a financial problem. A fall is a different category entirely. HOST_2: When daylight comes, the order of operations is photograph, then touch, in that order, always. Jen's rule, and I will keep saying it: photograph it before you touch it. Start from the street: the whole house, each side, the roofline against the sky. Then the yard evidence, because hail tells its story at ground level first. The dents in the soft metals: gutters, downspouts, window screens, the metal cap on a vent, the air conditioner fins. Photograph the hail itself if there is any left, next to a coin or a ruler for scale, and check the time stamp setting on your phone is right, because those photographs become the spine of everything that follows. HOST_1: Then the roof itself, and here is where I translate hail the way I do on every inspection: not by size, by effect. Hail matters to an asphalt shingle when it bruises the mat underneath the granules, and a fresh bruise has a feel to it, soft under the thumb, like a peach that got dropped. From the ground with binoculars you are looking for the pattern: granule loss in streaks below the valleys, cracked or creased tabs where wind got under them, shiny spots where the asphalt is showing through. You are not a roofer and nobody expects a diagnosis. Your job in the first forty-eight hours is evidence and notes: what you saw, where, and when the storm hit, written down while you still remember the hour it woke you up. HOST_2: Now the phone call, and what to say when you call it in. A claim opens with three facts: the date of the storm, what you observed, and what, if anything, is damaged inside. Say those plainly. You do not need to declare the roof totaled, and you do not need to minimize either. Two cautions from my old chair. First, opening a claim and asking a question are different things, and it is fair to ask your agent which one you are doing before you start. Second, keep every paper: the claim number, the adjuster's name, every letter. The file you keep is the claim you can prove. HOST_1: And the people who will knock on your door, because after a real storm they arrive before the adjuster does. Some are fine local crews working their own neighborhood. Some rolled in behind the storm with a magnet sign and a contract that deserves a slower read than a doorstep allows. The first forty-eight hours rule for door-knockers is total: nobody gets a signature. A real inspection can be scheduled. A real contractor can wait a day, give you a card, and still be in business next week. Anybody who needs your signature before the insurance company has even seen the roof is telling you who the signature serves. HOST_2: Let me put the timeline together the way I would for my own sister. Day one: safety, then photographs, street to yard to roofline, hail with a coin if it is still around. Write down the storm's date and time as best you know it. Day two: the call, claim number in your notebook, and appointments scheduled, not improvised. Somewhere in those two days, one walk around the house with a flashlight in the attic if you can do it safely, looking for the only question that changes the category of the problem: is water getting in? Everything else in the first forty-eight hours is patience wearing a hard hat. HOST_1: And the thing nobody photographs that I wish they would: the contents of the yard before cleanup. The patio furniture, the grill cover, the play set. Soft things around the house are hail witnesses, and they also get swept into a dumpster by well-meaning cleanup before anyone thinks to document them. Ten extra photographs cost you four minutes. They have saved more claims than any argument I have ever made on a roof. HOST_2: If you want the whole sequence on one page, the Hail Season roof-check list is free: what to check, what to photograph, what to say when you call it in, in the order we just walked. It exists because the first forty-eight hours are when a claim is either built or buried. HOST_1: I'm Rick Ostrowski. HOST_2: I'm Jen Kowalczyk. Photograph it before you touch it, and we'll see you after the next storm, which in Minnesota is a scheduling detail, not a possibility.

Dakota County Hail Oct 28: Miesville, Hampton and Your Roof

Hail Season — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 15:08:04 -0600

On Wednesday, October 28, 2026, a rare late-season severe outbreak hit the southern edge of the Twin Cities metro. We go through the preliminary storm reports, explain what different hail sizes can mean for your roof, and cover what to do now that the hail season is ending.

In this episode:

The biggest metro hail on Oct 28 fell in southern Dakota County: 1.75" stones 3 miles west of Miesville, 1.50" (ping-pong ball) at New Trier and 1.25" northwest of Miesville.
Wind damage near Hampton: a farm outbuilding roof near MN-50 and MN-56, snapped pines and limbs at Hillcrest Cemetery and a damaged backyard playset. No wind speeds were recorded.
The largest hail of the day was 3.00" spiky stones southwest of Grove City in Meeker County, plus quarter-size hail in Granite Falls, Blomkest, Sartell and Mora.
Tornado warnings ran for Dakota and Goodhue counties until 5:30 p.m. There was no confirmed Minnesota touchdown, only a brief, weak spin-up near Danbury, Wisconsin.
Why autumn severe weather is "relatively rare" here: the last October with tornadoes was 2021.
A look back at June 19, the season's big metro hail day: 2+ inch hail in northern St. Paul, half-dollar-size hail in Woodbury and hail lasting more than 10 minutes in some areas.
Why one spot report can't tell you what hit your roof, and how to check for damage safely from the ground.
Minnesota Department of Commerce guidance: photograph damage before cleanup, notify both your insurer and your mortgage company, avoid unlicensed contractors, and know that a 2% wind and hail deductible on a $400,000 home is $8,000 out of pocket.

Sources:

Subscribe to Hail Season: https://feeds.transistor.fm/hail-season

Full transcript

Rick Ostrowski: ...so the guy says to me, "It was golf ball hail, so I need a new roof." And I'm standing there going, okay... which golf ball? Where'd it land?
Jen Kowalczyk: Which golf ball.
Rick Ostrowski: I'm serious! Size is the first number everybody grabs. And on its own, it's... honestly, it's the least useful number there is.
Jen Kowalczyk: Okay, but people need SOMETHING to go on, Rick. Size is what the news gives them.
Rick Ostrowski: Fair. So let's translate it. Let's say what each size actually does to a shingle.
Jen Kowalczyk: And let's start with the real storm, because there was one. Wednesday, October 28th.
Rick Ostrowski: Late October. Hail. In Minnesota.
Jen Kowalczyk: MPR News called autumn severe weather "relatively rare" here. The last October with tornadoes was 2021.
Rick Ostrowski: So what came down this time?
Jen Kowalczyk: The biggest metro hail was in southern Dakota County. One and three-quarter inch stones three miles west of Miesville, a little after five p.m. An inch and a half, ping-pong ball size, at New Trier. And an inch and a quarter northwest of Miesville.
Rick Ostrowski: That's farm country down there. Lot of outbuildings.
Jen Kowalczyk: And near Hampton there was wind damage. A farm outbuilding roof got hit, pines and limbs snapped at Hillcrest Cemetery, and a backyard playset got wrecked.
Rick Ostrowski: Any wind speeds on that?
Jen Kowalczyk: None were recorded. There were tornado warnings for Dakota and Goodhue counties until five-thirty, but there was no confirmed Minnesota touchdown. The only tornado report was a weak little spin-up over a lake in Wisconsin, near Danbury. No damage.
Rick Ostrowski: Okay.
Jen Kowalczyk: And keep in mind, these reports are preliminary. None of them show major damage in the core metro.
Rick Ostrowski: Good. So if you live in the middle of Minneapolis and somebody's knocking on doors about "the storm"...
Jen Kowalczyk: Funny how that happens.
Rick Ostrowski: ...stay measured. Okay. Translation time. Quarter size. One inch.
Jen Kowalczyk: There were quarter-size reports that day too. Granite Falls, Blomkest, Sartell, Mora.
Rick Ostrowski: Right. One inch on a newer architectural shingle, a lot of times what you see is granule loss. Little dark spots where the gravel got knocked off. The mat underneath might be fine. Might not.
Jen Kowalczyk: Might not?
Rick Ostrowski: Depends on the shingle. Old and brittle after twenty summers of baking? One inch can bruise it. New and flexible? It often shrugs it off.
Jen Kowalczyk: So what's a bruise, in homeowner words?
Rick Ostrowski: You press your thumb on the hit and it feels soft. Like a bruise on an apple. That means the mat underneath fractured, and that's damage. Missing granules with a firm mat underneath... that's closer to cosmetic. For now.
Jen Kowalczyk: And "cosmetic" is a word to watch for in your policy, by the way. Hold that thought.
Rick Ostrowski: Holding it. Inch and a half, ping-pong ball. Now I'm expecting bruising on most asphalt. Dents in soft metal. Gutters, downspouts, vent caps.
Jen Kowalczyk: Vent caps are the tattletale, right?
Rick Ostrowski: Vent caps are the BEST tattletale. Soft metal, sitting right up on the roof, dents easy. If they're clean, I relax a little. If they look like a golf ball...
Jen Kowalczyk: And then inch and three-quarters. Miesville.
Rick Ostrowski: At that size, on a typical asphalt roof, I'd honestly expect a replacement conversation.
Jen Kowalczyk: Okay, hold on. I don't love that.
Rick Ostrowski: Go ahead.
Jen Kowalczyk: You just told somebody in Dakota County their roof's probably shot. But that report is ONE spot, three miles west of a town. Hail doesn't fall like a blanket. It falls in streaks. A house a mile over could have nothing.
Rick Ostrowski: Yeah. That's fair. I've walked streets where every roof's done, then you turn the corner and it's like nothing happened.
Jen Kowalczyk: So the size tells you whether it's worth checking. It doesn't tell you what's on YOUR roof.
Rick Ostrowski: Agreed. I'll take that. Size gets you to the ladder. It doesn't get you the check.

Oct 28 Hail in Dakota County: What to Do After a Late-Season Storm

Hail Season — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 11:49:39 -0600

Severe hail is rare this late in the year, but on Wednesday, Oct 28, it hit the south metro. Rick and his co-host cover who got hit and what to do in the first 48 hours after a storm. They also cover what you can still do six days later.

In this episode:

Official storm reports for Oct 28: 1.75" hail 3 miles west of Miesville, 1.50" (ping-pong ball) hail at New Trier and 1.25" hail northwest of Miesville, all between 5:06 and 5:10 p.m.
Wind damage near Hampton: a downed pine tree, trees snapped at Hillcrest Cemetery and roof damage to a farm outbuilding at the MN-50/MN-56 intersection
The biggest hail was 3-inch "large spiky" hail near Grove City in Meeker County, with quarter-size hail in Granite Falls, Blomkest, Sartell and Mora
Tornado warnings covered Dakota and Goodhue counties, but no touchdowns were confirmed and Hennepin County postponed its siren test
Check from the ground, not a ladder: look at gutters, downspouts, AC fins and vents for dents, and look for piles of shingle granules at the bottom of downspouts
Photograph damage before you clean anything up, put a coin or tape measure in the shot for size, and keep all the photos in one album
Why roofs damaged in the June 19 storm, which brought 2-inch-plus hail to northern St. Paul, may have been hit again
Insurance and contractor protections: roof claims now often run $40,000-$60,000, the BBB warns about door-knockers, and under Minn. Stat. 325E.66 a contractor can't promise to waive your deductible

Sources:

Subscribe to Hail Season: https://feeds.transistor.fm/hail-season

Full transcript

Rick Ostrowski: ...and the guy looks at me and goes, "Rick, it's November. Nobody gets hail in November." And I'm standing in his driveway going, well... technically it was October.
Jen Kowalczyk: Barely. Wednesday the twenty-eighth.
Rick Ostrowski: Right. And it wasn't pea gravel either. The official storm reports have one-and-three-quarter inch hail three miles west of Miesville.
Jen Kowalczyk: One and a half at New Trier, that's ping-pong ball. One and a quarter three miles northwest of Miesville. And all of it came down in about a five-minute window. Five-oh-six to five-ten in the evening.
Rick Ostrowski: Five minutes is plenty. Hail that size on a shingle with some years on it... it doesn't bounce off. It knocks the granules loose. Sometimes it cracks the mat underneath. You press your thumb on the spot and it gives. Soft. Like a bruise on an apple.
Jen Kowalczyk: And this is LATE in the year. MPR News called fall severe weather around here rare. Hennepin County postponed its siren test because of it.
Rick Ostrowski: Which tells you something.
Jen Kowalczyk: It does. Okay so, the topic today is the first forty-eight hours after a storm. And Rick... for the twenty-eighth? That window's closed. It's been six days.
Rick Ostrowski: Yeah, it's closed. But honestly? Most people don't do anything in the first forty-eight anyway. They look out the window, the shingles are still up there, they go back to dinner.
Jen Kowalczyk: I saw so many files like that. Homeowner calls in way later, and the first question is "what did it look like right after?" And they've got nothing.
Rick Ostrowski: So we'll do it the way we always do. What to check, what to photograph, what to say when you call it in. And if you missed the window, what you can still do.
Jen Kowalczyk: Before we get into it, though. Who actually got hit? Because it wasn't just hail.
Rick Ostrowski: No. There was wind too, down by Hampton. The reports mention a downed pine tree, a damaged playset, trees snapped at Hillcrest Cemetery... and roof damage to a farm outbuilding at the MN-50, MN-56 intersection.
Jen Kowalczyk: And there were tornado warnings for Dakota and Goodhue counties until five-thirty.
Rick Ostrowski: But no touchdowns.
Jen Kowalczyk: Right. CBS Minnesota said the warnings were radar-indicated. People got video of funnel clouds and rotation, "but nothing reached the ground." The official reports list no Minnesota tornadoes that day.
Rick Ostrowski: And the really big stuff was out west. Three-inch hail. The reports call it "large spiky." Two miles southwest of Grove City, in Meeker County.
Jen Kowalczyk: Some news outlets put that one near Atwater, in Kandiyohi County. The official reports say Meeker.
Rick Ostrowski: Three-inch spiky hail. I don't even want to picture that roof.
Jen Kowalczyk: Quarter-size in Granite Falls, Blomkest, Sartell and Mora too. Anything since then?
Rick Ostrowski: Not that I've seen.
Jen Kowalczyk: Same. November second had no Minnesota reports, and I haven't seen news of anything in between. So, okay. Step one. What do you check?
Rick Ostrowski: First thing, you check from the GROUND. Walk all the way around the house. Start with the soft metals. Gutters, downspouts, the vents on the roof you can see from the yard. Metal shows dents before shingles show anything, so if your gutters look like somebody went at 'em with a ball-peen hammer—
Jen Kowalczyk: Wait, wait. From the ground. Say that part again.
Rick Ostrowski: From the ground.
Jen Kowalczyk: Because people hear "check your roof" and they drag the ladder out. In November. With frost on the shingles.
Rick Ostrowski: Okay, fair, but— a lot of guys, they're handy, they've been up there a hundred times—
Jen Kowalczyk: Rick. No. It's cold, it's dark by dinner, and wet shingles are slick. You fall off a roof, now you've got a way bigger problem than a claim. Binoculars. Phone zoom. Stay on the grass.
Rick Ostrowski: Yeah. Okay. You're right. I get paid to go up there. They don't.
Jen Kowalczyk: Thank you.
Rick Ostr...