You hear a “clink” sound. Many of them. The same sort of sound that you may hear in a baseball game when the bat and ball meet. Instead of standing on the sidelines cheering for your favorite team, you’re taking shelter indoors. There’s a hailstorm outside. Once it’s over, you discover record-breaking size hailstones embedded into your rooftop unit among flattened air intake fins.
Hailstorms are a threat anywhere in the U.S., causing millions of dollars of serious damage to HVAC equipment. Many times, a unit will fail completely after a few months of minimized air flow. Energy dollars are wasted and equipment repair or replacement dollars are spent.
HailStop® hail guard is can be installed on equipment to prevent this damage. Lightweight and easy to install, this netting deflects airborne objects and debris such as hail. Unique mount clips are easily attached to the equipment. HailStop fits onto the open clips, and the movable tab closes into locking position. Sold in single job kits and master rolls, netting can be cut to size with scissors or a utility knife.
Fast Facts on Hail
- Largest hailstone ever recorded fell in Vivian, S.D., July 23, 2010, weighing 1.9375 pounds, and measuring 18.5 inches in diameter.
- States with the most severe hail events are Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
- An average of 3,000 hailstorms hit the U.S. every year.
- Hail caused approximately $1.29 billion in annual damage (2010–2014). (The National Weather Service)
- Events involving wind, hail or flood accounted for $21.4 billion in insured catastrophe losses in 2014 dollars from 1994 to 2014.
- 5,411 major hailstorm reports occurred in June (1,324 storms); April (1,193 storms); and May (881 storms). (2015, NOAA’s Severe Storms database)
- 2000–2013, U.S. insurers paid almost 9 million claims for hail losses, totaling more than $54 billion. The average claim severity from 2008–2013, 65% higher than from 2000–2007. (2014, Verisk)
- Atmospheric winds of 100 mph are necessary to suspend larger hailstones as they grow in a thunderstorm, and they may be flying around in the clouds for 20-30 minutes before falling to the ground.
Sources: Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, and Weather Underground.
