Sunroof glass replacement around Tampa Bay.

Much of Tampa Bay parks under oaks, and the oaks are not all the same tree. University of Florida foresters who surveyed trees after hurricanes put the live oak in the group most able to stand up to wind, and the laurel oak and water oak in the group least able. A laurel oak over a driveway is the one to watch when a summer cell or a tropical system comes through.

Big storms bring more than wind. When Hurricane Milton crossed in October 2024, the National Hurricane Center recorded 20.40 inches of rain at one gauge near St. Petersburg. A cracked roof panel in that kind of rain lets water straight onto the headliner and the seats, so a broken sunroof here is rarely something to leave until next week.

Every opening sunroof sits in a tray with small drain tubes at the corners, which carry water down through the pillars and out under the car. A roof seal is never perfectly dry in a downpour; the drains are what keep the water out of the cabin. Leaves, oak catkins and the dirt from a broken panel can block them.

When we fit a new panel we look at the tray and the drain openings while the roof is open, and tell you if one looks blocked or slow. Clearing a blocked tube that runs inside the pillar is work for a dealer or a sunroof mechanic, but you will know about it before the next afternoon storm finds it for you.