Hail & Wind Damage Leads for Roofers: Fresh NWS Storm Reports

Get hail, damaging-wind and tornado reports from the National Weather Service within minutes to hours of the storm, not the 75+ days it takes for the official Storm Events database. Each lead has the hail size, wind speed, exact coordinates, the nearest ZIP code, the county, a map link, the NWS warning it fell in, and a priority score built for roofing and exterior contractors.

Built for roofers, storm-restoration contractors, gutter and siding companies, public adjusters and canvassing teams who want to know where the hail actually fell before the competition does.

You are never charged twice for the same report. Schedule it hourly and each run returns only storm reports you haven't received yet.

What you get

Field	Example
priority	high
hazardLabel	Hail, Damaging wind gust, Wind damage report, Tornado
hailInches, hailSize	2.75, Baseball (2.75 in)
windMph, measured	74, true (instrument) / false (estimated)
locationDescription, nearestTown	6 E Mclean, Mclean
county, state	Wheeler, TX
nearestZip, nearestZipMiles	79054, 6.2
latitude, longitude, googleMapsUrl	35.23, -100.49, map link
eventTimeUtc, hoursAgo	2026-10-13T22:47:00.000Z, 4.2
reportSource, remark	Trained Spotter, Baseball size hail near mm149 on I-40.
warningType, warningMaxHailInches	Severe Thunderstorm Warning, 2.75
warningId, warningUrl	AMA.SV.W.0330.2026, link to the warning
nwsProductId, nwsProductUrl	The original NWS Local Storm Report text

Every row is flat, so CSV and Excel exports work without any cleanup.

Coverage

All 50 states and DC, from every National Weather Service office. Reports come from trained spotters, emergency managers, law enforcement, weather stations and the public, verified and published by the NWS as Local Storm Reports.

Storm damage types

Type (input value)	What counts	Default threshold
Hail (hail)	Hail reports	1.00 in (quarter)
Damaging wind gust (wind_gust)	Measured or estimated gusts, thunderstorm or not	58 mph
Wind damage report (wind_damage)	Roofs, trees on homes, structures, power lines	always
Tornado (tornado)	Confirmed tornado reports	always

Priority

• High: golf-ball hail (1.75 in) or larger, gusts of 75 mph or more, tornadoes, and wind-damage reports that mention roofs, shingles, siding, homes, garages or other buildings.
• Medium: 1.25–1.74 in hail, 65–74 mph gusts, other wind damage (trees, power lines).
• Low: everything else that passed your thresholds.

Results are sorted by priority, then hail size / wind speed, then newest first.

How to use it

1. Pick your states, or set a service area (center point + radius in miles).
2. Adjust the minimum hail size if you only chase bigger stones (1.25 in or 1.75 in are common).
3. Click Start to try it, then schedule it (for example hourly) under Schedules.
4. Send new leads where your team works with Apify's integrations: Slack, email, Google Sheets, Zapier, Make, or a webhook to your CRM.

Keep Look back at 24 hours or more even on an hourly schedule. NWS offices often post reports hours after the storm, and the Actor only delivers each report once anyway.

Example input

{
  "states": ["TX", "OK"],
  "hazards": ["hail", "wind_damage", "tornado"],
  "minHailInches": 1.25,
  "minPriority": "medium",
  "centerPoint": "35.4676, -97.5164",
  "radiusMiles": 120,
  "lookbackHours": 72,
  "onlyNew": true
}

Pricing

Pay-per-event. You only pay for what you get:

Event	Price	When
Lead delivered	$0.05	Once per new storm report added to your results
Run started	$0.002	Once per run

Examples

• Three states, checked hourly: about $1.44/month in run fees, plus $0.05 per report. A big hail day with 60 qualifying reports costs $3.
• Quiet week with no storms: you pay only the run fees.
• Use Max leads per run and Apify's maximum cost per run to cap spending on outbreak days.

FAQ

Where does the data come from? National Weather Service Local Storm Reports and storm-based warnings, retrieved from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet at Iowa State University, which archives NWS products and publishes them as open data. NWS data is public domain. Every lead links to the original NWS product. Thank you to the Iowa Environmental Mesonet for keeping this archive open.

How is this different from the NOAA Storm Events database? Storm Events is the final, quality-controlled record, but it is published about 75 days or more after the storm. Local Storm Reports are the same observations as they come in, minutes to hours after the hail falls, which is when they are useful for canvassing.

Where does the ZIP code come from? It is the ZIP Code Tabulation Area whose 2020 Census center is closest to the report, within 30 miles. It is approximate: a report can sit near a ZIP boundary. Use the coordinates and map link for exact placement.

What is the warning information? If the report fell inside a Severe Thunderstorm or Tornado Warning polygon while it was in effect, you get the warning, the largest hail size and wind speed the NWS forecast for it, and a link. It helps you judge how widespread the damage might be beyond the single report point.

Are these addresses of damaged homes? No. Each lead is a point where the storm was observed, with the nearest town, county and ZIP. Use it to decide which neighbourhoods to canvass or mail. The reports contain no homeowner names or phone numbers.

Is this legal to use? The data is public. You are responsible for following the rules for contacting property owners in your area, including door-to-door solicitation permits, contractor licensing, post-storm solicitation limits some states place on contractors and public adjusters, and do-not-call rules for phone outreach.

Can I rely on this for safety decisions? No. Reports are delivered as-is from the NWS archive for business use and may be delayed or corrected. For warnings, use weather.gov or local media.

I ran it twice and the second run returned nothing. Is it broken? No. With Only new reports on, reports you already received are skipped so you don't pay twice. Turn it off to see everything in the look-back window again.

Changelog

• 0.1: First release. Hail, wind and tornado reports for all US states, nearest ZIP, warning polygons, priority scoring.