In November, walk the perimeter of the house with binoculars and look at the ridge line, the valleys, and every place a vent or chimney breaks the roof plane, before the wet season's rain and gusts arrive, because work done now costs less and schedules easier than the same repair done mid-storm.
Why November and not some other month
People default to spring cleaning logic and check the roof after winter, when the damage is already done. The better time is before the wet season starts, not after it ends. Work done before the wet season costs less and is easier to schedule than the same work done during it, because crews are not triaging leaks at that point, they are doing planned repairs on a dry roof with a dry schedule.
That ordering matters more in Carlsbad than it would somewhere with a long, even rainy season. Here the wet months are compressed, and once the first serious storm rolls through, every contractor's calendar fills with emergency calls. A problem spotted in early November gets fixed on someone's terms. The same problem spotted in late December gets fixed on the storm's terms.
Do I need to get on the roof or hire a ladder inspection
No. A roof is checked from the ground with binoculars, not from a ladder. Nothing on this list needs anybody on the roof, and that is true for a one-story bungalow near the village and a three-story place up in the hills alike.
Stand at each corner of the house and scan the ridge for a wave or dip, scan the valleys for displaced granules or a shingle edge that has lifted, and scan every penetration, vents, skylights, the chimney flashing, for a gap that was not there last year. A pair of binoculars resolves all of that from the lawn.
What does Carlsbad's actual wind and storm data say I should be looking for
This is where the generic calendar advice falls apart. According to the Open-Meteo ERA5 reanalysis archive, daily maximum 10 m wind gust readings for this area show the pattern that actually drives roof damage here, not a seasonal guess but a measured record of how hard the wind has pushed on roofs in past years. Gust events like that are what lift a shingle tab or work a flashing nail loose months before anyone sees a stain on the ceiling.
The storm record for Carlsbad adds the other half of the picture: hail and heavy-rain events are logged separately from wind, and the two do different kinds of damage. Wind lifts and tears. Hail bruises and cracks. Checking against both means looking for lifted tabs on the windward side of the roof and for small dark pock marks or cracked granule coating on any slope, not just the one facing the street.
What should I actually do if I spot something
If the ridge line looks uneven, a valley shows bare patches, or flashing around a vent looks separated from the roof plane, that is enough to act on. You do not need to diagnose it yourself, and you do not need to climb up for a closer look.
Submitting the request puts it in front of local contractors that cover the Carlsbad ZIP code, automatically and in under 60 seconds, and no more than 3 of them can take it on. From there it is between the reader and whichever contractors respond, with the scheduling advantage of acting before the rain starts rather than after.