It’s been a busy start to storm season for roofing contractors in certain areas of the Midwest, Southwest, and Northeast, and forecasts calling for more severe weather across parts of the country has roofers preparing for success.

Since the start of spring, roofing contractors have responded to damage caused by multiple storm sequences that have delivered high winds and massive hail outbreaks. While damage estimates are in under initial review, they’re already expected to soar into the tens of millions of dollars in the upper Midwest. The response appears to be creating some backlog for roofers in an otherwise spotty reroofing market still anchored by high interest rates and disrupted cashflow.

The weather patterns creating the most damage are characterized by "cumulative damage," where regions have been hit by multiple rounds of storms in quick succession. In the Midwest, homeowners endured a record-fast start to the season with widespread hail events – some reaching 2-3 inches in diameter – across Iowa, northern Illinois and lower Wisconsin by mid-April.

In Wisconsin alone, a record 26 tornado warnings were issued and several tornadoes were reported on April 17, including an EF-3 with 145 mph winds that demolished several homes in Marathon County in the heart of the state. In all, at least 75 homes were reported destroyed or heavily damaged, and the initial damage assessment process is underway, according to Wisconsin Emergency Management.

AccuWeather reported that as of mid-May, the strong start to storm season could mean damages exceeding $50 billion in 2026. The Midwest region, in particular, is becoming a hotspot for activity as the season moves on. It would be the third consecutive year of $50 billion in projected storm damage.

About a week after the Wisconsin outbreak, a string of violent storms pushed across the Southwest and Plains states, over a five-day period in late April. It produced nearly 100 tornadoes, the National Weather Service reported. One of them, a massive EF-4 tornado, struck Enid, Okla., with 170 mph winds. In Elwood, Mo., homeowners recorded massive 4.75-inch hail, and in early May, North Texas and central Oklahoma were hit again with hail exceeding 2 inches, compounding previous storm damage.

Hailstorms account for between 50% to 80% of severe storm losses so far this year, with major events hitting Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas this spring. The impact on insurance is reflected in the relative spike in premiums in states like Minnesota (+34%) and Nebraska (+25%) from previous years.

Justin Dant, CEO of Soderburg Roofing & Contracting in Kansas City, Mo., said his inspection teams found significant damage across multiple homes just hours after the storms passed in mid-April.

Dant said neighborhoods on the north side of Kansas City, including Parkville and Platte Woods, appear to be among the hardest hit areas. The hailstones reported in parts of the Kansas City area measured roughly 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter, and the volume of large hail made the storm particularly destructive, he said.

“It wasn’t just one big stone and then a bunch of small ones,” Dant explained. “There were a lot of larger hailstones sitting in yards. That’s what really causes damage.”

The experts at HailTrace concur, calling the early arrival of storms in 2026 as abnormal. The activity is already above the national average, and storms appear to be ramping up faster and stronger than in the past. The number of hail incidents is up as well, and exceeded the average by more than 12% each week of April, including 30.5% up during the week of April 22, a monthly report stated.

Eric Moore, owner of First City Roofing & Remediation in Vincennes, Ind., said a surge in calls after a severe weather event leads to inspections even when leaks are not immediately visible. Those can show that a roof’s overall lifespan has been shortened or compromised by the hail impacts.  

“That usually means more inspection requests and more homeowners trying to understand whether their roof damage qualifies for an insurance claim,” he said. “Most homeowners do not realize that hail and wind damage is often not visible from the ground.”

The Forecast

Following the first hurricane season in a decade without a U.S. hurricane landfall, AccuWeather experts warn that the risk of direct U.S. impacts is elevated this year. Even with fewer storms expected overall, there is potential for multiple direct U.S. impacts this season, including early-season or even pre-season development. 

The national meteorological service announced earlier this year that it predicts 11-16 named storms to develop along the Atlantic Coast this coming hurricane season, beginning June 1. Roughly three to five of those storms are expected to make direct impacts on the U.S. before the season ends in the fall.

That still falls below what the experts consider near-to below-historical levels for the Atlantic. AccuWeather considers a direct landfall, a storm passing within 60 miles of the coast, tropical-storm-force winds on land, flooding from a tropical system, or more than 2 feet of storm surge as a direct U.S. impact.

Areas with higher risk than the historical average include the central and eastern Gulf Coast states, as well as both Carolinas and the Virginia coast, according to the forecast.

The predictions are not that far off from last year’s, which may give some roofing contractors pause. In March 2025, AccuWeather forecasted 13-18 named storms, including seven to 10 hurricanes, half of which were expected to be Category 3 or higher. By September, following an unexpected lull in hurricane storm activity, it downgraded its forecast to roughly six major storms. There were two direct impacts on the U.S. overall, and neither were considered hurricanes.

Regardless of what weight roofers give to forecasts, experts agree preparedness is key to not just maintain business through a challenging storm but actually thrive.

Roofing contractors have much better technology available to them now and are looking to implement efficiencies directly into their workflow that saves time, said Eagleview CEO Piers Dormeyer.

In April, his company launched Eagleview Horizon, a geospatial intelligence engine that leverages Its 25 years of archived property data to help roofing contractors and other construction trades solve problems. Also geared for use in the insurance, government, infrastructure, and property management fields, it has the potential to impact what should be a very active storm season, Dormeyer said. It can especially help roofing contractors through a unique combination of meteorological information, geospatial data, mapping capabilities and AI that ties it all together.

“It makes it so much easier than the old days of being able to just look at a hail swath, understand it, verify it, and then be able to deploy into that area,” he said. “You're not just blindly picking neighborhoods and door-knocking them.”

Whatever technology or other tools roofers use officials cautioned that forecasts can be deceiving.

"It's very important that everybody from South Texas all the way to Maine prepares equally for each and every hurricane season, regardless of the forecast," said AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Alex DaSilva in a news release. "Even if it's expected to be a slightly below-average hurricane season, we can still see major hits across the United States."

Moore said contractors frequently find hail bruising on shingles, wind-lifted or creased shingles and damaged flashing around roof penetrations after severe storms. He’s expecting many more of those this season.

“With storms like this already showing up early in the season, most contractors expect 2026 to be another active year for severe weather across the Midwest,” he said.

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