WU: Huge Hail Pummels Denver; More Severe Weather on the Way

Written by on May 9, 2017 in Spring 2017, United States of America with 0 Comments

Below article from Weather Underground

 ·  May 09, 2017, 6:16 PM

Above: Patrick Clark inspects his damaged car after a strong spring storm moved through the metropolitan Denver area, creating rivers of hail, on Monday afternoon, May 8, 2017. Image credit: AP Photo/P. Solomon Banda.

Windshields were shattered and roofs left tattered by a massive hailstorm that swept through the Denver area on Monday afternoon, wreaking damage that could end up in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Long nicknamed “Hail Alley,” the high plains of northeast Colorado just east of the Rocky Mountains are notorious for destructive hail. On Monday, a cold front with low-level upslope flow teamed up with unstable air and light south-southwest winds aloft to prime the Colorado Front Range for slow-moving severe weather.

Monday’s storm plowed across the northwest half of the Denver metro area around 3:00 pm MDT. It eventually merged with other storms into a mesoscale convective system that dumped more than 2” of rain in the Greeley, CO, area. The weak upper winds kept severe weather limited to the eastern High Plains of Colorado and New Mexico.

Out of 60 hail reports from Monday collected by the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center (SPC) as of midday Tuesday, the most impressive was 2.75” (baseball-sized) at a hospital in Wheat Ridge, just northwest of central Denver. (See this photo, tweeted from a nearby location.) Severe damage was reported to vehicles in Lakewood, another western suburb. The storm forced postponement till Tuesday of a Colorado Rockies-Chicago Cubs baseball game at Coors Field, where the field’s tarp was slathered with a coating of hail.

Hail damage in Denver could easily top $100 million

Even small hail can be surprisingly destructive if it comes down in a barrage. Monday’s storm in Denver featured a gamut of sizes, from pea to baseball, in the kind of onslaught that inflicts financial pain on both residents and insurers. Even as the storm unfolded, radar returns made it clear that big hail was likely falling (see this dramatic radar loop).

Insurers were in the field assessing damage on Tuesday. Past experience suggests that a hefty financial toll is possible. “It is entirely plausible that such an event can leave damage into the hundreds of millions, particularly when we get large hail like May 8 hitting densely populated areas,” said Steve Bowen (Aon Benfield).

Damage from the 11 costliest hailstorms along the Colorado Front Range, including the Denver area, over the last 25 years
Figure 1. Damage from the 11 costliest hailstorms along the Colorado Front Range, including the Denver area, over the last 25 years. None of these 11 storms occurred as early in the spring as Monday’s event, for which damages have yet to be assessed. Image credit: Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, courtesy Steve Bowen, Aon Benfield.

Rapid growth in Colorado’s urban areas over the last decade has greatly increased the potential for property damage from hail. Not counting Monday’s event, four major Colorado hailstorms in the last six years produced a combined total of more than $1 billion in damage (in 2015 dollars). Colorado ranked behind only Texas in the number of hail-related insurance claims filed in the 2013-2015 period, according to a 2016 report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Figure 2. The number of insurance claims related to hail filed in each state from 2013 to 2015.
Figure 2. The number of insurance claims related to hail filed in each state from 2013 to 2015. Image credit: National Insurance Crime Bureau.

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