Does home insurance cover weather damage?
Short answer. Home insurance covers most sudden weather damage, including wind, hail, lightning, tornadoes, the weight of ice and snow, and trees blown onto the house. The big weather exclusions are flood and rising water, earthquake, and gradual weathering, and many Georgia policies apply a separate, larger deductible to wind and hail losses.
Weather perils usually covered
- Wind, including tornadoes and straight-line winds: missing shingles, torn siding, fallen trees.
- Hail: roof, gutters, siding, screens, window wraps and AC fins.
- Lightning: fire, power surge damage, blown off chimney bricks.
- Weight of ice, snow or sleet: collapsed sections, broken gutters, falling limbs.
Weather damage that is excluded
- Flood: rising water, heavy runoff entering at ground level and overflowing creeks. Flood insurance is separate, and policies through the National Flood Insurance Program usually have a waiting period before they take effect, so buy before storm season.
- Earthquake and landslide: excluded unless endorsed.
- Gradual weathering: sun damage, granule loss and rot from years of rain.
- Rain through an existing weak spot: interior rain damage is usually covered only when wind or hail created the opening.
How Georgia weather shows up in claims
North Georgia gets spring hail, summer thunderstorms with damaging downbursts, tornado outbreaks, occasional winter ice storms, and inland wind and rain from tropical systems, as Hurricane Helene showed in 2024. Each storm has a date, and your claim needs the right date of loss. You can check hail history for your zip code at the free North Georgia Hail Map.
Check your deductible before storm season
Wind and hail deductibles are often a percentage of your dwelling limit, which can be several thousand dollars. See percentage wind and hail deductibles and the after a hail storm checklist.