On 1 January 2023 the modelled daily maximum gust at Irvine was about 52 mph, a high but not severe band that does not tear off sound roofing but reliably finds anything already loose, lifted, or under-fastened.
How strong was the wind on January 1 2023
According to the Open-Meteo ERA5 reanalysis archive, the daily maximum 10 m wind gust modelled at Irvine's city location on 1 January 2023 was about 52 mph. That sits below the 58 mph threshold used to mark a severe wind day, but it is well into the range where loose material on a roof stops being a theoretical problem.
ERA5 is a reanalysis, not a weather station reading from a mast on a specific street. It blends model and observational data over a grid, so it is better for comparing one day against another than for pinning an exact gust to one address. For a January 1 event, that comparison is what matters: 52 mph places that day clearly above an ordinary breezy afternoon.
What a 52 mph gust actually does to a roof
A gust in the high band, short of the 58 mph severe line, generally will not strip a properly fastened roof. What it does is test every weak point that was already there: a shingle tab with a failed seal, a ridge cap with pulled nails, flashing around a vent pipe that was never resealed after a prior repair. Those are the things that let go first.
The difference between 'high' and 'severe' matters for what a reader should expect to find. Severe gusts can lift whole sections of otherwise sound roofing. A 52 mph day does not do that. It tends to produce isolated damage: one or two tabs down, a piece of ridge cap missing, a gutter apron bent, rather than a widespread tear-off.
Why this particular date is worth checking
According to the storm record for Irvine, January 1 2023 is logged as a day worth checking against roof condition, which is consistent with the 52 mph gust figure from the ERA5 archive. A storm date in that record is not proof that any individual roof was damaged. It is a marker of which days actually carried enough wind to matter, as opposed to an ordinary windy afternoon that never gets flagged.
If a roof started showing a leak, a loose shingle, or a dented gutter sometime after New Year's Day 2023, this is the date to check against. Matching a visible problem to a dated gust reading is more useful than guessing which of several storms that year might have caused it.
What to actually check after a high-band gust day
Start at the ridge line and the edges, since those are the first places a 52 mph gust finds a lifted or unsealed shingle. Look for tabs that are missing, curled, or sitting at a different angle than the ones around them. Check gutters for dents from windborne debris and look at any roof penetrations, vent stacks, skylights, chimney flashing, for gaps that were not there before.
Readers who find damage, or who are not sure what they are looking at from the ground, can put the details in front of local contractors that cover their Irvine ZIP code through this site. The request goes out automatically, takes under a minute, and no more than three contractors can take it on from there.