How do I know whether my roof suffered hidden storm damage?

Fresh debris in gutters or on the ground. Grit or mortar fragments where there were none. A component sitting out of line. Staining that has appeared on a wall below a joint. Any of these is enough reason to have the roof looked at.

The absence of all of them is not evidence that the roof is undamaged.

Ridge, hip and verge bedding for cracking. Flashings for lifting and displacement. Coverings for movement, rocking and broken nibs. Valleys and gutters for displaced material. Chimney heads and pots for movement. The roof space for new staining.

Dated imagery matters here: it records the condition as found, which is far more useful than a description given weeks later.

Checking soon after a storm means the findings can be attributed to it with reasonable confidence, and any temporary protection can be put in before more weather arrives. Waiting until a leak appears makes both harder.

We make no statement about what any insurer will accept; that depends on your policy and their assessment. Recording evidence promptly simply gives you the facts to present.

Where ground-level clues are inconclusive but something still feels wrong — a persistent draught, an odd smell in a roof space, or staining that reappears after every heavy shower — it is reasonable to ask for a closer inspection even without a single obvious symptom. Reporting the pattern you have noticed, and when it occurs, helps a surveyor decide where to concentrate attention rather than working through every detail with no starting point.

It also helps to keep a simple note of when symptoms appear relative to weather, since a leak that only shows in driven rain from one direction points toward a different area than one that appears in any rain. That pattern, alongside dated photographs, gives an inspection a clear question to answer rather than a general request to look at the roof.