Storm restoration roofing is a timing business. The contractor who knows about a hail event before the homeowner has filed a claim — let alone before competitors start canvassing — has a 48-72 hour window that produces the majority of the season's revenue. Hail tracking software is how you get that window. Here's how these tools work, what the major options offer, and how to build them into a canvassing decision process.
How Hail Tracking Software Works
Hail tracking platforms aggregate data from multiple sources — NOAA storm reports, Doppler radar, community spotter networks, and proprietary weather stations — to map hail events in near real-time and build historical storm archives.
After a storm, you can pull up a map showing:
- Hail size by location (in inches, often displayed as a heat map)
- Storm path and affected area boundaries
- Date and time of the event
- Storm type (hail-only, wind + hail, tornado)
- Historical event data for the same area (is this a market that storms often?)
The better platforms push alerts to your phone within minutes of a qualifying event in your monitored territory — so you're aware before the homeowner has even looked up from their dinner.
Key Hail Size Thresholds
Not every hail event is worth canvassing. Knowing which events trigger insurance claims saves your team from chasing storms that won't produce work:
- Under 0.75" (pea-size): Cosmetic damage to soft metals (gutters, AC fins) only. Unlikely to generate roof replacement claims. Not typically worth mobilizing.
- 0.75" to 1.0" (dime-to-quarter-size): May damage older or already-compromised shingles. Worth monitoring in markets with aging housing stock; marginal for modern shingles.
- 1.0" to 1.5" (quarter to half-dollar-size): Functionally damaging to most shingles. Clear soft metal impacts. Strong basis for insurance claims in most markets. Mobilize.
- 1.5" and above (golf ball and larger): Near-certain claim territory. These events produce widespread damage and full replacement claims at scale. Drop everything and mobilize.
Most experienced storm roofers set their alert thresholds at 1.0" for notification (pay attention) and prioritize canvassing for 1.25"+ events.
HailTrace
HailTrace is one of the most widely used hail tracking platforms among roofing contractors. It aggregates radar data and ground truth reports to produce storm maps at the street-address level, showing hail size, storm path, and affected areas.
Key features:
- Real-time storm alerts by phone/email for your monitored territories
- Historical storm search by zip code or county going back several years
- Street-level hail size maps (useful for prioritizing specific neighborhoods within a larger storm footprint)
- Report downloads to attach to claim files
- Integration with some CRM platforms for workflow automation
HailTrace is a paid subscription with pricing based on market coverage area. Most roofing contractors report it pays for itself quickly as a canvassing efficiency tool.
HailStrike
HailStrike offers similar storm data with a mobile-focused interface designed for field reps to use during canvassing. Features include:
- Mobile-first storm alerts and map views
- Hail path visualization overlaid on a satellite map
- Historical storm lookups
- Storm frequency analysis by market
HailStrike is generally positioned as slightly more accessible than HailTrace with a focus on individual rep use rather than company-wide integration.
CoreLogic HVX (Hail Verification eXchange)
CoreLogic's HVX is the institutional-grade hail data product used by insurance carriers to verify claims. It uses proprietary data science — satellite imagery combined with radar — to produce high-confidence hail size estimates at the property level.
For most residential roofing contractors, HVX is more than you need — it's designed for carrier-grade verification, not canvassing decisions. However, some large multi-market storm restoration companies subscribe to have access to the same data carriers use, which helps predict which claims will be approved.
Free and Low-Cost Alternatives
Several free options provide basic storm tracking with less precision:
- NOAA Storm Prediction Center (spc.noaa.gov): Free storm reports with hail size and location. Less granular than paid platforms but accurate for large events.
- Wunderground and Weather.com radar: Historical radar that shows storm paths, but doesn't include hail size estimates.
- Spotter Network: Community storm spotter reports — useful for verification but not formatted for canvassing decisions.
For contractors just starting in storm restoration (<$1M revenue), the free NOAA reports are a workable starting point. Beyond that, the canvassing efficiency gains from a paid platform typically justify the cost within the first season.
Building Hail Data Into Your Canvassing Process
The best use of hail tracking is a simple three-step decision process:
- Alert fires: Software notifies you of a qualifying event (1.0"+) in your market
- Evaluate: Pull up the storm map. What's the affected area? What's the maximum hail size and where is it concentrated? What's the housing density in the hot zone?
- Mobilize: Assign reps to specific neighborhoods within the highest-impact zone. Prioritize the areas with the largest hail, highest housing density, and oldest housing stock. Log territory assignments in your CRM so you can track coverage.
Companies that respond within 24-48 hours of an event consistently outperform companies that respond a week later. Homeowners in the first week are discovering damage and don't have a contractor yet. Homeowners in week two and beyond have often already been called by 3-5 contractors.
Using Historical Storm Data
Beyond real-time alerts, historical storm data helps you answer strategic questions:
- Which markets in your region storm most frequently? (Use this for expansion decisions.)
- Which neighborhoods in your current market haven't been worked yet from last year's storm? (Homeowners may still not have had their roof replaced — a second-chance canvassing opportunity.)
- Which markets are oversaturated with storm roofers vs. underserved? (Hail frequency + competition density.)
Storm data without a workflow is just weather information. The contractors who extract the most from hail tracking are the ones who build specific processes around it — who's responsible for monitoring, what the alert threshold is, how fast the team deploys, and how territory assignments are made.
Further Reading
- Storm Restoration Roofing: Running an Insurance-First Company — Full operational guide from storm identification through supplement recovery
- Managing Storm Surge: Scaling Crews Fast — What to do in the 72 hours after a qualifying storm event
- Ketterly for Storm Restoration Contractors — How Ketterly integrates hail tracking workflows with canvassing, claim management, and production