An original 51-jurisdiction roofing storm-stress index built from 11 years of NOAA storm data. Updated 2026-06-28 · RoofScoutPro Research
South Dakota ranks as America's most roofing-storm-stressed state, with a composite score of 86.0/100 — driven by 4,801 hail events and damaging winds over the past 11 years.
Texas logged the most hail events of any state — 14,072 in 11 years — averaging more than 1,279 a year.
Texas recorded the most tornadoes (1,502), a major driver of sudden, total roof loss.
Stones up to 6 inches across — bigger than a softball — were recorded in Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas. Hail over 1 inch can total an asphalt-shingle roof.
Composite score blends per-capita hail, damaging-wind and tornado frequency, peak hail size, and FEMA storm declarations. Higher = more roof-damaging storm exposure.
| Rank | State | Stress score | Hail events | Wind events | Tornadoes | Max hail | FEMA decls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Dakota | 86.0 | 4,801 | 5,388 | 228 | 6.0″ | 214 |
| 2 | North Dakota | 63.5 | 2,705 | 2,459 | 298 | 4.5″ | 164 |
| 3 | Nebraska | 57.3 | 6,079 | 4,757 | 513 | 6.0″ | 410 |
| 4 | Kansas | 55.4 | 8,265 | 7,987 | 734 | 5.0″ | 641 |
| 5 | Wyoming | 47.0 | 1,811 | 1,137 | 110 | 4.5″ | 17 |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 44.2 | 5,894 | 5,592 | 1,077 | 6.0″ | 880 |
| 7 | Mississippi | 39.1 | 1,411 | 5,557 | 1,097 | 4.88″ | 697 |
| 8 | Iowa | 34.7 | 3,736 | 4,928 | 831 | 4.0″ | 409 |
| 9 | Montana | 30.7 | 2,015 | 2,396 | 41 | 4.25″ | 83 |
| 10 | Alabama | 28.3 | 1,349 | 7,827 | 896 | 5.38″ | 620 |
| 11 | Arkansas | 28.1 | 2,230 | 3,657 | 466 | 5.0″ | 483 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 26.6 | 1,534 | 6,702 | 414 | 4.5″ | 1080 |
| 13 | Missouri | 26.5 | 4,411 | 6,391 | 647 | 5.0″ | 659 |
| 14 | Texas | 25.8 | 14,072 | 10,293 | 1,502 | 7.02″ | 963 |
| 15 | Louisiana | 25.2 | 1,224 | 3,274 | 712 | 4.0″ | 1131 |
| 16 | Minnesota | 24.0 | 4,203 | 4,420 | 591 | 6.0″ | 147 |
| 17 | West Virginia | 20.9 | 757 | 3,644 | 45 | 4.25″ | 332 |
| 18 | Colorado | 19.6 | 4,913 | 1,741 | 471 | 5.25″ | 0 |
| 19 | Georgia | 19.4 | 1,257 | 9,617 | 637 | 4.0″ | 964 |
| 20 | Tennessee | 18.0 | 1,690 | 6,558 | 421 | 4.0″ | 593 |
| 21 | North Carolina | 17.9 | 1,623 | 7,123 | 339 | 4.5″ | 847 |
| 22 | Virginia | 17.2 | 1,329 | 8,940 | 182 | 4.0″ | 761 |
| 23 | New Mexico | 16.6 | 1,669 | 952 | 122 | 4.0″ | 44 |
| 24 | South Carolina | 16.6 | 1,207 | 5,845 | 320 | 3.0″ | 599 |
| 25 | Illinois | 15.8 | 3,195 | 7,218 | 958 | 4.75″ | 148 |
| 26 | Wisconsin | 15.5 | 2,620 | 3,504 | 351 | 4.5″ | 55 |
| 27 | Indiana | 13.5 | 1,643 | 4,886 | 405 | 4.0″ | 85 |
| 28 | Florida | 13.1 | 1,012 | 5,243 | 588 | 3.0″ | 966 |
| 29 | Pennsylvania | 12.0 | 1,400 | 9,976 | 265 | 4.0″ | 209 |
| 30 | Ohio | 11.0 | 1,749 | 6,938 | 429 | 3.5″ | 173 |
| 31 | Maryland | 10.4 | 410 | 3,959 | 82 | 4.0″ | 153 |
| 32 | Michigan | 9.6 | 962 | 3,010 | 163 | 4.5″ | 23 |
| 33 | Maine | 8.4 | 257 | 972 | 11 | 2.75″ | 81 |
| 34 | New York | 8.4 | 825 | 8,295 | 114 | 3.0″ | 334 |
| 35 | Vermont | 8.2 | 117 | 694 | 5 | 1.75″ | 140 |
| 36 | New Hampshire | 8.1 | 278 | 921 | 14 | 2.5″ | 95 |
| 37 | Idaho | 7.1 | 252 | 1,087 | 21 | 2.75″ | 19 |
| 38 | New Jersey | 6.3 | 361 | 2,853 | 55 | 2.5″ | 240 |
| 39 | Delaware | 5.5 | 49 | 492 | 18 | 2.25″ | 18 |
| 40 | Connecticut | 5.4 | 104 | 926 | 31 | 2.5″ | 132 |
| 41 | Arizona | 5.3 | 401 | 1,680 | 63 | 2.75″ | 27 |
| 42 | California | 5.1 | 355 | 533 | 73 | 3.0″ | 139 |
| 43 | Massachusetts | 4.6 | 333 | 2,101 | 39 | 2.0″ | 138 |
| 44 | Washington | 4.4 | 75 | 178 | 24 | 2.75″ | 95 |
| 45 | Oregon | 4.1 | 161 | 139 | 29 | 2.5″ | 70 |
| 46 | Utah | 4.1 | 169 | 1,382 | 21 | 2.0″ | 5 |
| 47 | Rhode Island | 3.0 | 31 | 175 | 9 | 1.75″ | 59 |
| 48 | Nevada | 2.9 | 85 | 463 | 11 | 2.0″ | 15 |
| 49 | District Of Columbia | 2.8 | 19 | 159 | 4 | 1.75″ | 8 |
| 50 | Hawaii | 0.7 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 1.25″ | 22 |
| 51 | Alaska | 0.3 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 1.0″ | 34 |
Counts are 11-year totals (2015–2025) from the NOAA Storm Events Database, by county, summed to state level.
Hail and high wind are the two leading causes of premature roof failure in the United States. A single severe hailstorm — stones an inch or larger — can bruise shingles, strip protective granules, and shorten a roof's life by years, often without an obvious leak. Damaging straight-line winds and tornadoes lift, crease, and tear off shingles outright. The states at the top of this index see this kind of weather far more often than the national average, which means homeowners there should inspect their roofs after major storms and budget for earlier replacement.
RoofScoutPro is a free, 24/7 service that connects homeowners with licensed local roofing professionals. If a storm has rolled through your area, a local pro can inspect the damage and document it for an insurance claim. Call (888) 648-6695 any time to be connected.
We aggregated every hail, thunderstorm-wind, and tornado event recorded by the NOAA Storm Events Database from 2015 through 2025 at the county level, then summed them to each state. To avoid simply rewarding the largest states, each storm metric was converted to a per-capita rate (events per million residents, using 2022 Census population estimates) before scoring.
Five inputs were min–max normalized to a 0–100 scale and combined into the composite score with these weights: per-capita hail frequency (42%), per-capita damaging-wind frequency (22%), per-capita tornado frequency (16%), peak recorded hail diameter (12%), and FEMA storm-related disaster declarations since 2010 (8%). Hail is weighted most heavily because it is the single most common cause of roofing insurance claims.
This is original analysis of free public data. You're welcome to cite or republish these rankings with a link to this page (https://roofscoutpro.com/blog/hail-windstorm-capitals-2026/).
NOAA Storm Events Database (2015–2025) · U.S. Census Bureau population estimates (2022) · FEMA disaster declaration summaries (2010–2025). RoofScoutPro is a roofing referral service, not a roofing contractor.
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