Storm risk in Chesapeake (independent city), Virginia

How FEMA rates Chesapeake

Expected yearly loss, in dollars

Rank 1 is the highest. Overall, hail and wind losses count buildings; the tornado row counts everything FEMA exposes, so it overstates building damage. Expected annual loss is an average over many years for the whole county, not a forecast for one roof.

What stands out in Chesapeake

• FEMA expects hail in Chesapeake to cost $11 per $1 million of buildings a year: 0.49 times the U.S. median and 2.03 times the VA county median, ranked 2,014th of 3,126 counties nationally and 31st of 133 in Virginia.
• FEMA expects strong wind in Chesapeake to cost $0.36 per $1 million of buildings a year: 0.02 times the U.S. median and 0.02 times the VA county median, ranked 3,079th of 3,121 counties nationally and 133rd of 133 in Virginia.
• FEMA expects tornado in Chesapeake to cost $76 per $1 million of buildings a year: 0.38 times the U.S. median and 1.41 times the VA county median, ranked 2,210th of 3,144 counties nationally and 33rd of 133 in Virginia.
• Applying FEMA's estimate to a $359,100 home, the average yearly loss in Chesapeake is about $3.93 for hail and $0.13 for wind before any deductible; at the U.S. median county rates it would be $8.02 and $7.32.
• If the next years look like 2014 to 2025, a roof kept 20 years in Chesapeake meets about 15.0 hail days of 1 inch or more; the median county in NOAA's file (1,275 counties) would give 35.0.
• Built in 1989, the median home in Chesapeake is 37 years old, so an original roof has outlived a 3-tab shingle (15 to 20 years) and an architectural one (25 to 30 years); 71.7% of its 95,997 homes are at least 26 years old.
• March to June holds 17 of the 21 hail reports in Chesapeake (81 percent); the quietest month is January, with 0 reports.

What hail and wind cost a home here in an average year

Enter a home value. The calculator applies Chesapeake’s own loss rate: the county’s expected yearly loss divided by the value of its buildings. It starts at the Census median home value for the county.

Read this as a yardstick. The rate is an average over every building in the county, from sheds to office towers, and over many years. Real losses come in rare, large storms; a roof with no damage in 19 years can need full replacement in the 20th. The figure is not a quote and not a prediction for one address.

Chesapeake in plain numbers

• Chesapeake scores 80.85 in FEMA's overall hazard index (Relatively Low): 603rd of 3,144 rated counties and 7th of 133 in Virginia.
• Hail scores 61.39 (Relatively Low). FEMA expects $494,387 of hail damage to buildings in Chesapeake a year, which is $11 per $1 million of buildings, 0.49 times the U.S. median.
• Strong wind scores 9.51 (Very Low) with $16,277 of expected yearly building loss in Chesapeake: $0.36 per $1 million of buildings, 0.02 times the U.S. median.
• Tornado scores 71.79 (Relatively Moderate) and FEMA's expected yearly tornado loss is $3,430,762, counting everything exposed, or $76 per $1 million of buildings in Chesapeake.
• FEMA's own event record for Chesapeake averages 1.44 hail events and 0.56 strong-wind events a year.
• NOAA logged 21 hail reports in Chesapeake between 2014 and June 2026, on 9 days with stones of 1 inch or more; the largest was 2 inches.
• In Chesapeake, FEMA counts buildings worth 45.17 billion dollars and 249,270 residents.
• Social vulnerability is Very Low in Chesapeake.
• Community resilience there is Very High, for 249,270 residents.
• 1 city in Chesapeake is covered on this site: Chesapeake. 6 Census ZIP areas have more than half of their land in the county.
• Our guide range for a 2,000 sq ft asphalt roof in Chesapeake is $6,860 to $15,190.
• Chesapeake ranks 131 of the 194 counties with a page here for hail loss per $1 million of buildings, 194 for wind and 164 for tornado.
• In Chesapeake, March is the busiest month with 6 of the 21 reports (29 percent), against 0 reports in September.
• Chesapeake's worst year was 2014, with 3 hail days at 1 inch or more and 5 reports. At the 2014 to 2025 pace that is 0.75 such days a year, one about every 16.0 months.
• The median home in Chesapeake was built in 1989; 31.6% of its 95,997 housing units date from before 1980, 71.7% from before 2000 and 15.0% from 2010 on.
• Census puts the median home value in Chesapeake at $359,100, and 73.8% of homes are lived in by their owners.
• 10,466 single-family building permits were issued in Chesapeake from 2014 to 2025, about 109.0 per 1,000 homes, peaking in 2020.
• NOAA lists 4 tornado tracks in Chesapeake since 2014; the strongest was an EF2 on March 31, 2017 near Oak Grove, 4.65 miles long.
• The fastest gust in NOAA's records for Chesapeake is 66 mph on April 16, 2018 at Mt Pleasant.
• The nearest county with a page here is Norfolk (independent city), 13 miles from the centre of Chesapeake; its hail score is 68.83.
• Across counties the median is one roofing firm for every 5,189 homes; Census counted 21 roofing contractor establishments in Chesapeake in 2023, one for every 4,571 homes.

The hail record of Chesapeake, year by year

NOAA logged 21 reports in Chesapeake; hail of 1 inch or more fell on 9 days. That is 0.8 such days a year; the median county in NOAA’s file has 1.8.

Biggest hail days in Chesapeake

Where large hail was reported

FEMA scores the county as a whole. NOAA’s reports show where inside Chesapeake the big stones fell.

Wind and tornado records for Chesapeake

How old the roofs are

Census counts homes by the decade they were built. Under each bar is the number of hail days of 1 inch or more that an original roof from that decade has met, at Chesapeake’s 2014 to 2025 pace of 0.75 such days a year. Most roofs have been replaced since; the row shows what a roof that never was would have taken.

Roofers and past disasters in Chesapeake

Nearby counties

The closest counties that have a risk page, by distance between county centres. Loss is per $1 million of buildings; the columns marked "times here" divide the neighbour's loss by Chesapeake's.

All 194 counties, with a filter by state and sorting

Cities and ZIP areas in Chesapeake

1 city in this county is on PickARoofer. ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are Census shapes that approximate ZIP codes; where we have a city’s ZIPs, the share is the part of each area’s land that lies in this county. 6 such areas have more than half their land here.

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