When it comes to severe weather and hail, experts recommend the following precautions to safeguard your vehicle:

PRIOR TO A HAILSTORM

Receive weather notifications

Prevention is always preferable to cure. Sign up for push alerts from a weather service and make it a habit to check the weather every day before you leave the house.

Check with your insurance provider.

A hailstorm may do significant damage to your vehicle, and if you don’t have comprehensive insurance or it doesn’t cover much, your pocketbook will certainly suffer as well. Read your auto insurance contract thoroughly and check for a section that expressly covers expenditures caused by fire or weather, and therefore hail.

Include some cushioned protection.

Shortly after such warnings, it’s common to see individuals hurrying to cover their cars with cardboard, blankets, or rugs to protect them from rain and falling debris. Is this, however, the proper course of action?

Experts advise keeping supplies such as blankets, tarps, or special coverings in your car to take out and use if you are trapped in a storm. If you’re taking measures ahead of time, it’s best to start with goods like cardboard or insulating material, which you can get at construction and hardware stores, and then layer more cushioned and softer materials like blankets or comforters over top. Purchasing a high-quality, weather-resistant umbrella cover will be a move you won’t regret.

Don’t throw pebbles at your automobile.

Most individuals will try to weigh down these materials by adding heavy things such as boulders on top to ensure that this improvised layer of protection remains. According to experts, this is a risky and selfish decision because such large and unstable objects might fly away in the whirlwind and either harm someone or severely damage someone else’s automobile. Tieing down your blankets or cardboard is the best and safest way to keep them from flying away.

If you just have enough cloth to cover the top of the car, squeezing it between the windows may be an alternative.

Find covered parking

Although they are excellent short-term alternatives, your best chance is to seek cover and find indoor parking. People should keep their automobiles indoors or in garages before such weather warnings, or leave them in relatively safe areas such as smaller alleyways, especially if indoor or subterranean parking is not an option in the neighborhood.

DURING A HAILSTORM

Seek proper shelter

If you find yourself in the middle of a hailstorm and out in the open, try to identify spots where you can shelter yourself from the oncoming ice. Backstreets or areas with overhanging tents are ideal options, but avoid below trees. If lightning strikes the tree during a storm, limbs may fall onto the automobile, inflicting catastrophic damage.

Get creative with what you’ve got

If you’re on the road, experts advise you to pull over and safeguard your vehicle as much as possible. Remove the cover or bulky blankets from your boot, or utilize your floor mats. You should prioritize protecting your windshield, even if it means that the rest of your automobile looks like a golf ball.