The 24-Hour Window That Determines Your Claim Outcome
Insurance carriers have an unofficial rule: the sooner you document damage after a storm, the stronger your claim. Same-day photos of hail impacts, before rain washes away the evidence and before foot traffic from curious neighbors scuffs the granules, are worth more than any expert report filed two months later.
The problem is knowing when to look. A storm can pass through at 3 AM, drop golf-ball hail on your neighborhood for 8 minutes, and be gone by the time your alarm goes off. By the time you hear about it from a neighbor three weeks later, the evidence has degraded.
The Storm Alert Subscription solves that. For $4.99 per month, you get an SMS and email the moment NOAA logs a damaging weather event within 5 miles of your home. Not a county-wide warning. Not a weather app push notification for rain. A specific, damage-relevant alert tied to your address.
What Triggers an Alert
We pull from the NOAA Storm Events Database, the same source insurance adjusters use to verify claims. Alerts fire for:
- Hail 1 inch or larger within your trigger radius (1-inch hail is the threshold for shingle damage on most architectural products)
- Straight-line wind 58+ mph (the threshold for shingle uplift and flashing damage)
- Tornado activity within your radius
- Severe thunderstorm warnings with confirmed damage reports in your area
You will not get alerts for light rain, garden-variety thunderstorms, or county-wide watches that do not affect your zip code. The average subscriber in the St. Louis metro receives 8 to 14 actionable alerts per year. In the Chicago suburbs, the number is similar during the April-through-September storm season.
What Happens When You Get an Alert
The alert lands as an SMS and an email within minutes of the NOAA event being logged. The message includes:
- Event type and severity (e.g., "1.5-inch hail confirmed")
- Time and duration of the event
- Specific NOAA event ID for your records
- A same-day photo documentation reminder with instructions
When you get the alert, walk outside (once the storm has passed) and take photos of your roof from the ground, any visible debris, and any dents on soft metals like gutters, downspouts, and HVAC units. Those photos, timestamped on the same day as the NOAA event, become the foundation of a strong claim if you need to file one.
Monthly Storm History Report
At the end of each month, subscribers receive a storm history report for their address showing every NOAA-logged event within the trigger radius for the past 30 days. This creates a continuous record that is valuable for:
- Annual insurance reviews
- Home sale documentation
- Tracking cumulative exposure over multiple storm seasons
- Deciding when to schedule a professional inspection
One Free Claim-Readiness Check Per Year
Every subscriber gets one free claim-readiness check annually. We review your storm history, assess whether you have a viable claim based on the events logged at your address, and give you a straight answer: file or do not file.
If the answer is "file," you can order our Insurance Claim Packet ($149) to assemble the documentation, or book a full storm damage inspection where we meet the adjuster on the roof.
Who This Is For
The subscription is most valuable for homeowners who:
- Live in hail-prone areas (most of the St. Charles, O'Fallon, and western St. Louis County corridor, plus the Naperville to Aurora belt in the Chicago suburbs)
- Have roofs older than 10 years where hail damage is cumulative
- Own rental or investment properties where they are not on-site to notice storm damage
- Want to build a documented storm history for insurance negotiation
At $4.99 per month ($59.88 per year), the subscription pays for itself the first time it prompts you to document damage that leads to a successful claim. The average approved hail claim in the STL metro pays out $14,000 to $22,000.
How to Subscribe
Subscribe here for $4.99/mo. Enter your address, confirm your phone number for SMS delivery, and you are covered starting immediately. Cancel anytime with no penalty.
If you already suspect storm damage from a recent event, skip the subscription and book a free storm inspection directly. We will assess the damage at no cost and tell you whether filing a claim makes sense.