Roofing for every climate

By Emma Peterson. 

A guide to choosing the right roofing products based on your regional weather, performance needs and challenges.  

There are a lot of environmental factors to consider when choosing the right materials for the roof of your home, not to mention the additional considerations for budget and aesthetic preference. While aesthetics and budget constraints certainly matter, climate is perhaps the most crucial factor to consider for the efficiency of your next roof. Depending on the climate of the region you live in, you will need different performance features and strength demands. 

Climate related performance features 

There are a lot of different features that can be incorporated into roofing materials that would make one product more adapted to certain climates than another. Here are some of the common ones you might see: 

• Reflectivity: In areas that get a lot of hot, sunny weather, it is usually a good idea to pick a roof with high reflectivity. This means that the product reflects UV rays from the sun. This not only keeps your roof lasting longer but can also make the interior of a building or home more comfortable as reflecting sunlight can help manage heat absorption. 
• Algae-resistance: Algae not only looks bad but can even lead to higher rates of moss and lichen growth, which can prematurely age a roof. For those in areas that get generally mild weather with a lot of precipitation and moisture foster algae growth, investing in algae-resistant roofing (such as copper-infused asphalt shingles) is a great idea. 
• Impact rating: Across the Midwest, hailstorms are commonplace, and because of these storms, it is more important for homeowners and businesses in affected areas to pay attention to impact ratings on their roofing products. The higher the impact rating, the better a product will perform in the face of hail. 
• Fire rating: Fire ratings, which are ranked from A (best) to C (worst), are ratings based on the results of testing a product’s fire resistance. For home and business owners in the West and other regions that face a wildfire season each year, investing in roofing products with a high fire rating can help keep their home standing. 
• Wind uplift rating: And for areas along the Gulf of Mexico that experience hurricanes and other extreme wind events, wind uplift ratings are a powerful safety feature that not only protects the inhabitants of a building but can also help with insurance coverage.  

A case study: Columbus, Ohio 

So, how do you assess your region and what performance features would be most useful for a roof? Let’s use Columbus, Ohio as an example. The climate of the area is considered continental, with extremely cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers that feature frequent thunderstorms and occasional severe wind events. 

This weather leads to a variety of roofing challenges. The experts at Nitro Roofing and Construction (who have offices in New Bremen, Columbus and Dayton) highlighted a few in a blog post:  

Columbus’s unique roofing challenges include wind damage from sudden storms, hail impact during summer months, ice dam formation in winter and UV exposure during long summer days. 

With these challenges, some of the key features to look for in a roof include a high impact rating (for summer hailstorms), strong reflectivity (to handle UV exposure) and good ventilation (to avoid ice dams in the winter and stagnant air in the summer).  

Learn more about picking out and maintaining a roof by reading Nitro’s full article.