°µºÚ±¬ÁÏ

© 2024
NPR °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ, Colorado Stories
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

It's been a 'hail' of a year for severe weather. One icy contender may have a new state record

A pedestrian under an umbrella steps from the street onto the curb as strong rain comes down.
David Zalubowski
/
AP
A pedestrian under an umbrella jumps over a water puddle at the corner of Wazeee Street and 20th Avenue as heavy rain packing high winds and large hail sweeps over downtown Denver on Thursday, June 29, 2023.

Severe storms in Colorado this year have produced a lot of hail. Concertgoers were pelted by large hailstones at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in June and the Eastern Plains has been consistently hammered over the last few months.

"It will most likely be the most hail reports in a summer that we've ever seen in Colorado," State Climatologist Russ Schumacher said.

Schumacher was in Goodland, Kansas, recently trying to verify if a hailstone that fell in Yuma County this month set a new record. A storm chaser named Dan Fitts collected the hailstone and brought it to the National Weather Service office in Goodland.

An informational slide is titled "Preliminary Record Hailstone for Colorado" with text description below and an image of a large icy hailstone clamped in a measurement device.
NOAA/NWS
A giant hailstone from Yuma County is likely going in the record books thanks to a storm chaser's photo.

The specimen melted a little in transit, but Fitts took a photo right after he found it that clearly shows its size - about five and a quarter inches in diameter.

A person leans over a white contraption holding a large hailstone set on a table while a phone camera visible films the occasion.
NOAA/NWS
A 3D scanner is used to map the size of a hailstone at the National Weather Service office in Goodland, Kansas. The hailstone was sprayed with a coating to keep it from melting while measurements were made.

Schumacher and others - including a team of insurance researchers - took measurements and a 3D scan of the hailstone. A group of state climate experts will likely make an official decision on any records being broken by next week.

"Pending the final approval from the state Climate Extremes Committee, this one will go in as the largest on record in terms of diameter," Schumacher said.

The hailstone won't set records for weight or circumference, though - that still belongs to a 2019 monster that fell in Bethune, Colorado.

Schumacher said this new hailstone record for diameter owes a lot to the photo taken by Fitts.

"Especially for something like hail, it really is members of the public, storm spotters, storm chasers, that provide the most valuable data," he said.

As the °µºÚ±¬ÁÏcast Editor and Producer, I provide listeners with news and information critical to our region.
Related Content