Residents across metro Denver waded through mounds of melting hail, shattered glass and downed tree branches Friday to begin cleaning up after a severe hailstorm pelted the region overnight.
The storm carved a destructive 20-mile path from Erie to Aurora, rivaling a massive storm in May 2017 that caused more than $2 billion in damage, officials with the National Weather Service’s Boulder office said Friday.
NWS staff received seven reports of hail larger than 2 inches after Thursday night’s storm, which is the threshold for a “significant” hailstone, said Warning Coordination Meteorologist Greg Heavener.
That’s the same number of significant hail reports as the 2017 storm, but this storm had a broader impact, Heavener said. While the 2017 storm was confined to the west metro, residents from Erie, Broomfield, Thornton and Aurora all reported large hailstones Thursday and Friday.
It’s also unusual for hail storms in Colorado to start so late at night, Heavener said.
This was likely one of the more destructive hail events in Denver history, but it’s a little early to tell until damage can be assessed, NWS Meteorologist Bernie Meier said Friday.
The storm started around 9 p.m. and rained down hail on central and east Denver, Aurora and northern suburbs including Thornton, Broomfield and Northglenn.
Hail up to 2.75 inches wide — just shy of the size of a baseball — was reported in Commerce City, according to NWS. Many other locations recorded hail more than an inch in diameter.
The hail smashed car windows, shredded gardens, dinged vehicles and damaged homes’ sidings. Blankets of ice still covered the ground in some areas of northeast Denver on Friday morning.
Barbara Baer jolted awake Thursday night to the roar of hail hammering her home in Denver’s Congress Park neighborhood. The golf-ball-sized hail smashed through a skylight in her entryway, leaving it mostly destroyed. Rain and hail came through the holes, dousing her home.
The skylight is more than 40 years old and has survived dozens of hail storms, she said.
“This one was just a little too much for it,” Baer said.
On Friday, she contacted her insurance company and arranged for someone to temporarily tarp the skylight. She raked up the sidewalk and checked the damage on her garden, which was fairly unscathed. Her car was dinged, even though it was parked under a tree. The hail storm was one of the worst in the more than 50 years she’s lived in Colorado.
“This really reminds you who is in charge – Mother Nature,” Baer said.
At a northeast Denver golf course, hail pummeled the turf so hard that organizers canceled a tournament final scheduled for Friday.
The golfer in the lead after Thursday’s round was declared the victor by default and awarded the $100,000 purse at the Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club. Photos provided to The Denver Post by tournament organizers show hail the size of golf balls blanketing the course Thursday night. The next morning, the course’s grass was pockmarked with holes.
Nearby, Mickey Admasu arrived at his Green Valley Ranch home near Netherland Street and East 51st Place shortly before noon after working a night shift at his gas station. He was anxious to see in daylight what damage the hail had caused.
He sighed, disappointed to see everything shredded in his eight raised garden boxes. He named the losses plant by plant — Swiss chard, jalapenos, cilantro, tomatoes, radishes — aware precisely of what was gone.
“Some of those cost $5 a plant,” he said. He was disappointed to see the hit his grapevines took. Walking deeper into the yard, he realized about $60 worth of flowers he had just planted were gone.
The back of Admasu’s house also took a hit, with screens torn and trim chipped by what he described as ping-pong-ball-sized hail. His patio door screen was blown off the tracks, but fortunately, no windows were broken.
Bags of cement he had piled up and covered for an outdoor grill he was building took on water and were hard — another loss.
Nearby, he gently lifted the snapped stems of a flower, calling it “my beautiful baby lily.” A small loss perhaps, but a larger symbol of a lost summer, one without grapes, without flowers, without homegrown vegetables to put on the table.
Nat Miullo’s home garden in Denver’s Hale neighborhood was also a total loss after Thursday night’s storm, shredded to bits just days after he finished planting.
Miullo was up late reading when he started hearing strange sounds outside. Soon, dime- and quarter-sized hail was coming “from all directions,” even sideways, he said.
A Coloradan since 1975, Miullo said he’s familiar with the state’s severe weather.
“In my experience, it’s really gotten more intense, more frequent and more strong,” he said.
More severe weather is possible Friday night, including large hail, damaging winds and heavy rain east of the main urban core, from Greeley to Colorado Springs, until 10 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
Areas southeast of Denver will have the highest chance for severe storms, Meier said. Chances for storms will increase if temperatures warm later in the day and chances will decrease if weather remains cool and cloudy as it was Friday morning, he said.
“It’s one of those iffy days,” Meier said.
