COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Central Texas has already logged its fourth day of triple-digit heat this year, and local roofing experts say the intense temperatures are taking a bigger toll on homes than most people realize.
While a thermometer might read the mid-to-upper 90s or low 100s on the ground, roofing surfaces can climb far higher. Rayne Knight, president of Aggieland Roofing, said dark shingles regularly reach 150 degrees in direct summer sun, and can spike even higher.
“Those roof temperatures are 150,” Knight said. “If they’re black, they can be up to 190 degrees. So, it’s intense on the roof.”
That kind of heat does more than make a roof hot to the touch. Knight said it can strip away the granules that protect shingles, melt the membrane layer underneath and cause blistering. All signs of accelerated wear.
“It can make the roofs completely lose granules,” Knight said. “We see a lot of scuffing if people are up there because it starts to melt the sheet, you know, the membrane behind those granules. Lots of deterioration. If there’s not proper ventilation, we can see blistering. So it affects it tremendously.”
Darker roofs get much hotter, reaching over 150 degrees.(KBTX)Signs homeowners can spot from the ground
Knight said most heat damage doesn’t require climbing onto the roof to notice.
“Blistering you can typically see from the ground if you’re really looking for it,” she said. “Granules are the easiest to identify because after a rain, you know, you may see a whole bunch of granules similar to after a hailstorm in the driveway.”
Left unaddressed, that damage can leave a roof with little protection against hail or severe weather later in the year, Knight said.
The hidden cost: your utility bill
Beyond physical damage, Knight said poor roof ventilation caused by heat-related wear can show up in an unexpected place… a homeowner’s energy bill.
“The underlying cause, you know, you’ll see it in those utility bills more so than ever,” Knight said. “If you’re not having the ventilation that’s causing those kind of damages on the shingles, then you’ll see it through the utilities as well.”
Knight said extreme heat can shorten a roof’s lifespan by as much as 10 years, even though Texas roofs are typically built to last 20 to 30 years.
A warming trend, not a one-summer problem
The extreme heat isn’t an isolated event, according to Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, a Regents Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University.
“Over the past 50 years or so, temperatures in Texas have gone up by more than half a degree Fahrenheit per decade,” Nielsen-Gammon said.
Nielsen-Gammon said the number to watch is 100 degrees. A threshold he calls the tipping point between “very hot” and “too hot,” especially when paired with humidity.
“We haven’t seen a lot of 100 degree days this year, but back in 2022 and ’23, we had several dozen each year,” Nielsen-Gammon said. “And that’s not the last time we’re going to experience that, unfortunately.”
What homeowners can do
Knight said the biggest mistake homeowners make is failing to check their roof after the initial installation.
“Really the thing I think that homeowners do the least… they get a new roof, everybody looks at it and then you go on with your life, and people just don’t pay attention to the signs,” Knight said. “Granules in the driveway. Ooh, that’s a little blister. I wonder why that’s there.”
She recommends periodically checking for blistering, bare spots or granules collecting in the yard. She says these are small signs that, if caught early, could save homeowners thousands of dollars in repairs down the road.
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