How to spot hail damage on an Atlanta roof

• Start with what you can see from the ground
• What hail does to a shingle
• How a roofer checks for hail
• Hail damage versus ordinary wear
• The storms that hit the metro in 2026
• Before you file a claim

Start with what you can see from the ground

Walk around the house the day after the storm. Look at the gutters and downspouts for round dents, and at the splash blocks for piles of dark grit, which are granules knocked off the shingles. Check the car, the mailbox, the grill cover and any window screens: if hail dented or tore those, it reached the roof too.

Siding and fences can show spatter marks, small clean spots where hail knocked off dirt and mildew. Those marks also show which direction the storm came from, which tells you which slopes took the worst of it.

What hail does to a shingle

An asphalt shingle is a fiberglass mat coated in asphalt and topped with granules that protect it from the sun. A hailstone that lands hard crushes the granules and can fracture the mat underneath. The shingle still sheds water at first. Over the following months, sun works on the exposed asphalt, the bruise softens and cracks, and water starts getting through.

How a roofer checks for hail

A proper inspection walks every slope where it is safe. Roofers mark a test square, usually ten feet by ten feet, on each slope and count the hits inside it, pressing each suspected bruise to feel for softness. Metal on the roof gets photographed too: vent caps, pipe collars, chimney caps and flashing all dent in a way that records hail size.

The result is a set of photos with a scale in the frame, organized by slope. That is what an adjuster needs to see, and it is far more useful than a handful of phone pictures taken from the yard.

Hail damage versus ordinary wear

Not every dark spot is hail. Aging shingles lose granules evenly across a slope, blisters form small raised bubbles that pop, and foot traffic scuffs shingles near chimneys and vents. Hail damage is random in placement, shows a soft or fractured center, and usually appears on the slopes that faced the storm.

The distinction matters, because insurers cover storm damage and not wear. A good inspection report says plainly which is which.

The storms that hit the metro in 2026

Several 2026 storms are worth knowing about. On February 26, hail from pea to ping-pong-ball size fell across the north Georgia mountain counties, and homeowners downwind in Cherokee County, Cobb County and Woodstock reported dented gutters and granules at their downspouts. On July 3, a warned storm over Acworth brought quarter-size hail and 60 mph gusts, and on July 28 dime-to-quarter hail and 60 mph winds crossed much of the metro.

If your neighborhood sat under any of those storms and nobody has looked at your roof, it is worth an inspection even if nothing is leaking.

Before you file a claim

Wind and hail are standard covered perils on most Georgia homeowner policies, while age and wear are not. Most policies also require prompt notice of the loss, and many set a window of one to two years from the date of loss. Get the roof inspected and documented first, so you know whether the damage is real before you file, and keep the storm date with the photos.