Hail hit Castle Pines on August 26, 2026. Here is what we know, what to check, and how not to get burned.

Sample client post. Ponderosa Peak Roofing & Restoration is a fictional contractor and its phone number is not in service. The storm is real: every weather figure below comes from the verified report this page was generated from. This is what the Storm Response Engine publishes on a client's own site the morning after a storm, under the client's name.

On the afternoon of August 26, 2026, hail measuring 1.25 in, about the size of a half dollar on the National Weather Service scale, was verified near 2 NW Castle Pines. That is not our estimate and it is not a neighbor's guess. It is the official Storm Prediction Center report, and you can read the source yourself: SPC Storm Reports (260826_rpts_filtered.csv).

Why this one matters

In the ten years of records we follow for Castle Pines, the biggest hail before August 26, 2026 was 1.00 in, on May 26, 2016. The August 26 hail was bigger. Hail of 1.00 in or more is the National Weather Service's own threshold for severe, so this cleared that bar with room to spare.

What that does to a roof depends on the roof: its age, its material, and which side faced the storm. We are not going to tell you your roof is damaged from a weather report. We are going to tell you it is worth a look.

The hard part of the days that follow is not the roof. It is not knowing: whether there is damage, whether to call your insurance company, and which of the trucks about to show up on your street to trust. This post is for that.

What to check first

• Check on the people first. Neighbors who live alone, anyone older, anyone whose power is out.
• Walk the outside of your home and look up. Missing or lifted shingles, dented gutters and downspouts, cracked window seals, and torn screens are the easy tells.
• Photograph everything before you touch anything. Your phone is fine. Dated photos make the insurance conversation simple later.
• Look inside for new water: a damp ceiling, a musty smell, water near a window frame.
• Keep receipts for tarps, temporary repairs, and anything you buy to stop further damage.
• Be careful with anyone knocking on your door in the weeks after August 26, 2026. Ask for a license, insurance, and a local address before anyone gets on your roof.

Hail leaves different marks on different roofs. On asphalt shingles, look for dark bruises you can feel with a thumb, bare spots where the gritty surface came off, and grit piling up in the gutters. On metal, dents. On tile, cracks and chips. If the roof looks fine from the ground, check the soft metals: air conditioner fins, gutters, downspouts, window screens, and your car. Hail that dented those hit the roof too.

Damage does not always show right away. A hit that knocked the surface loose can take a season to turn into a leak. That is the honest case for an inspection instead of a guess.

Is more coming, and is the power out?

We do not forecast, and we do not guess. The National Weather Service does: their forecast for Castle Pines. If the power is out, Douglas County is served by two utilities depending on your address: CORE Electric outage center and Xcel Energy outage map.

Before you call your insurance company

Three things, in this order. Document first: photos of everything, dated, before cleanup. Get an inspection before you file, so you know whether there is anything to claim; an open claim with no damage behind it helps nobody. Know your deductible. In Colorado a roofer cannot pay it, waive it, or promise to, and anyone who offers is breaking the law.

Your policy sets the window for filing a claim. Read your declarations page or ask your agent, and do not let anyone rush that decision at your door. The Colorado Division of Insurance keeps a plain-English page of answers for after a hail storm.

Two ways the weeks after August 26, 2026 go wrong: damage nobody caught that becomes a leak in March, or a contract signed at the door that you cannot get out of. Both are avoidable.

How to tell a real roofer from a storm chaser

• A local address you can drive to, and a company you can find in the Colorado Secretary of State business search.
• Registered with your city or county building department. Ask for the registration; check it.
• A certificate of insurance for liability and workers' compensation, with the insurer's phone number on it.
• The scope, materials, and approximate dates and costs in a written contract before any work starts. On an insurance claim, the price follows your insurance company's estimate, so ask how they handle anything the adjuster missed.
• No pressure to sign on the spot, no "we'll cover your deductible," and no signature on an insurance paperwork form before an inspection.

That is the short version. The full checklist, the one we hand our own neighbors, includes the exact protections Colorado law gives you and the questions that make a storm chaser leave. It is free; we just ask for an email so we can send it.

How we handle inspections

We inspect, we photograph, and we tell you plainly what we found, including when the answer is "you are fine." If there is damage, you get the photos and a written summary you can hand to your insurance company. If there is not, you get the same summary and a handshake. Either way the inspection is free and there is no pressure to decide anything on the spot.

By September 3, 2026 you should know whether your roof is fine or not, in writing, with photos, and you should have decided what to do about it with facts instead of pressure. That is the whole job.

Get eyes on your roof before September 3, 2026

Dana, Ponderosa Peak Roofing & Restoration
We live here too.

How this page was made

The Storm Response Engine generated this post from the verified report Hail in Castle Pines, CO (2026-08-26), the same data that powers every page on Colorado Storms. On a client engine it publishes under the contractor's name, on the contractor's domain, with the contractor's phone number, usually within a day of the storm, and the contractor owns every lead. The company above is fictional; everything about the weather is real. See the Castle Pines storm history for the ten-year record behind the comparison.