Denver and the entire Eastern part of the state was under the gun for potential severe weather on Monday afternoon; the first severe day of the year. There was a tornado warned storm around Agate on the Palmer Divide and the radar definitely showed a couplet, but only sustained funnels were reported by chasers on the ground. The main threat was hail; big hail and lots of hail, and straight line winds.
I went out east of Denver to start, took a conference call for work while I was watching the major hailstorm wreck havoc over Denver. After my call, I headed east until I eventually punched through the line of cells and was able to see the storms on the east side. Watched several cells get close and then headed home. Although there was a lot of lightning, I was nearly to Kansas and will wait until another day to catch the nighttime action closer to home!
That was quite a hailstorm! I was on the way back from work and was in the region of highway 58 and I70 heading south and about a mile or two from the turnoff for 6th Avenue when I got caught in it. It was golf ball sized and larger and resulted in a severely spiderwebbed windshield and multiple dents in my Xterra. Surprisedly the car was not totaled so I replaced the windshield early last week. I do need to replace the right front turn light as it got smashed although the lower yellow turn light is still working.
I probably should have waited the storm out at work as the sky was very dark requiring the use of headlights. But then again there were spots of even more severe damage close to work so just the luck of the draw. I pulled over with other cars at the side of the highway when we got hit and after it cleared up, there were sections of the road that were up to six inches deep of smaller hail going south on Wadsworth. No hail seen around my condo though. It was certainly a larger than usual severe damage area though.
James. Hope you’ve gotten to visit your claims and pull out some gems so far this spring! Yes, that spring storm was nasty, one of the most damaging in Colorado’s history! But it was sure cool looking at a distance! I have been in a couple of hailstorms in the past that I was trapped in, and it isn’t very fun…sorry you got all dinged up, glad you were okay!