TV gone after a storm? How to tell if your aerial or dish is damaged

The storm season is properly under way. Storm Austen, the first named storm of 2026/27, crossed southern Britain on 23 October, with yellow wind warnings across much of England and Wales. Storm Boelo followed over the weekend, mostly further north. More will come before spring. After windy nights, the question we hear most is a simple one: the TV was fine yesterday, so is the aerial broken?

Sometimes it is. Often it isn’t. Here’s how to tell the difference without going anywhere near a ladder.

First, rule out the things that aren’t your aerial

A picture that freezes, breaks into blocks or says “no signal” after a storm has a few possible causes. Two of them cost nothing to check.

Is it the transmitter?

High winds and power cuts can affect transmitters as well as houses. Before you assume the worst, put your postcode into the Freeview Channel Checker on the Freeview website. It shows coverage at your address and any known problems or engineering work in your area. If there’s a fault listed, wait. It isn’t your aerial, and nobody needs to climb on your roof. You can also call the Freeview Advice Line on 03456 505050, Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm.

Does the TV just need a retune?

If the power went off during the storm, a TV or set-top box can come back confused. Run one retune (sometimes called “auto tune” or “first-time installation”) from the settings menu. If you get all your channels back with a steady picture, you’re done. You don’t need us.

If the retune finds fewer channels than before, or some channels break up and others don’t, retuning again won’t fix it. That pattern usually points to a weaker signal reaching the TV, and after a storm the usual reason is the aerial or its cable.

What you can safely check from the ground

Stay off the roof. Wet tiles, wind and an aerial that might already be loose are a bad combination, and Freesat’s own advice is not to climb onto the roof or use ladders. Everything worth checking can be seen from the garden or the pavement, ideally with a pair of binoculars.

• Which way it points. Compare your aerial with your neighbours’. In most streets they all face the same transmitter. If yours is now pointing somewhere else, the wind has turned it on its pole.
• Whether it’s level. An aerial that has tipped forward or rolled sideways has usually slipped in its clamp.
• The pole and bracket. A bent pole, or a chimney bracket that has slid down or come away from the brickwork, is more serious than a twisted aerial. It can come down in the next gale.
• The cable. Look for cable flapping free down the wall or hanging off the aerial. Wind can pull the connection loose, and once water gets into the joint the signal fades over the following days.
• The dish. For satellite, check the dish is still square on its wall bracket and the arm isn’t bent. Look for anything new in the way, such as a fallen branch, or scaffolding.

If anything is hanging loose or leaning, keep people and cars out of the way underneath it, and get it made safe rather than waiting for the next storm to finish the job.

Why exposed and hilly spots feel it first

Wind damage isn’t spread evenly. The homes we see it on most are the ones where the aerial has to be high and the ground is open, and the ones where the signal was only just good enough to begin with.

Hindhead is one of the highest villages in Surrey. Height helps reception, and many homes there take a strong signal from the Midhurst transmitter. But to clear the tall pines around Grayshott and Beacon Hill, aerials are often mounted high on the chimney, where they take the full force of the wind. Loose fixings and twisted aerials are common after a big blow. Our Hindhead aerial page explains how we set them up there.

Haslemere has the opposite problem. Much of the town sits in a wooded valley, and some streets are in a partial signal shadow. An aerial there may have been aimed carefully to get a stable picture from Midhurst, with not much signal to spare. A few degrees of movement in the wind can be enough to tip it from fine to unwatchable, even when the aerial looks almost right from the ground. There’s more on that on our page about TV aerials in Haslemere.

Around Dorking, the North Downs block the direct signal from Crystal Palace for much of the town, so most aerials point at the Reigate transmitter instead. Out towards Westcott, Brockham and the other Mole Valley villages, woodland adds to it. If a storm has knocked a Dorking aerial and you’re now missing channels, it’s also worth knowing that the small local relay is Freeview Light, which carries only the public service channels. Our Dorking aerial page covers which transmitter suits which part of town.

In all three places, the fix after a storm is usually the same: put the aerial back where it should point, tighten or replace the fixings, and remake any wet connections. Occasionally the storm shows up a mast or bracket that was already tired, and that’s the time to replace it properly.

Insurance, and getting it fixed

Whether an aerial or dish is covered depends on your home insurance policy, so check the wording or ask your insurer. The Association of British Insurers’ general storm advice is to contact your insurer as soon as you can, to speak to them before arranging emergency repairs, and to keep the receipts if you pay for work yourself. It also points out that some things, such as fences, may not be covered as standard. Keeping your property maintained is part of most policies, which is worth bearing in mind if an old aerial was already in poor shape.

Whoever you call, ask them to test the signal at the TV once the aerial or dish is back in place, not just to look at it. An aerial can be pointing roughly the right way and still be delivering a weak signal through a damaged cable. Freeview suggests getting more than one quote, which is sensible advice for any roof work.

Before the next storm

You can’t storm-proof an aerial completely, but you can stop a small problem becoming a big one. If you’ve noticed your picture getting worse every time it’s windy, or the aerial has been leaning for a while, that’s worth sorting before a winter of gales rather than after. The same goes for a satellite dish that has started losing signal in weather that never used to bother it.

If your aerial or dish needs putting right, our TV aerial repair service covers realignment, new fixings and replacement across Surrey and Berkshire, and our satellite service realigns and repairs Freesat and Sky dishes. Most jobs are priced on the phone.