Watch Out: Colorado Easily One of the Worst States for Hail

If you live in Colorado, you know the weather can get pretty insane. Every state says things like, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes”, but that feels particularly true in Colorado.

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Whether it’s thunderstorms or blizzards, to extreme heat to freezing cold temperatures, you’ll find it all here in the Centennial State.

As it would turn out, we’re especially prone to one of nature’s most terrifying weather events; tornados. In fact, Weld County is the tornado capital of the country.

Since 1950, there have been more tornadoes in Weld than any other county in the US, and that includes places in Tornado Alley and the newer Dixie Alley in the Deep South.

However, there’s another weather event that disproportionately affects Colorado more than nearly the rest of the country, and it has ties to both thunderstorms and even tornados.

Colorado Gets More Hailstorms Than Nearly The Rest of the US

It may seem obvious to some degree, but the amount of hailstorms we get does not fall into line with the rest of the country.

As a state, hailstorms happen far more frequently. We also see way more damage from these storms than the rest of the country as well.

We rank second in the country in terms of hailstorm damage. The number of insurance claims back in 2016 topped 90,002, which is truly absurd considering the third place state, Nebraska, had 58,142.

However, first place is even more staggering. Texas had a total of 378,652 claims, which is a truly mind-boggling amount of hailstorm damage.

Colorado’s status as one of the most hailstorm-prone states in the country crosses multiple studies as well.

Insurify put together a study to find which states are affected the most by hailstorms. Colorado yet again ranked second. On average, Colorado had a mindblowing $151 million average financial loss from hailstorms, with the highest per-capita loss at $30.07.

Why Does Colorado Get So Many Hailstorms? The Altitude Plays a Big Role

With all of this being said, it’s interesting to look at why Colorado is so prone to hail in the first place.

The main reason we get so much hail is generally simple: We sit at a higher elevation than most other places.

Quite simply, we are closer to the part of the atmosphere that has the higher freezing level.

On the other hand, it would turn out Colorado’s clouds in the summer are actually relatively cold, which also leads to more hail.

In general, CBS News Colorado says there’s 7 to 9 days of hail per year, but the hail itself is usually relatively small.

However, that doesn’t mean they can’t get big. In fact, Yuma, which is in Colorado’s Eastern Plains, was hit with hail the size of tennis balls very recently.

Also on the Eastern Plains, baseball sized hail recently hit Washington County. While these storms are mostly somewhat harmless, you should always prepare for the worst just in case.