DENVER — A hailstorm that hit east Denver, Aurora and Commerce City in May caused $1.9 billion in damage, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That makes it the costliest single hailstorm in Colorado since May 2017, when a storm that brought hail and flooding caused $2.3 billion in damage.
NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information tracks "billion-dollar" disasters in the United States. The agency said between Jan. 1 and Aug. 8 of this year, there were 19 confirmed weather/climate disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion each.
The hailstorm that hit the metro area May 30 came late at night, bringing tiny stones followed by large, damaging hail. There was so much hail that some neighborhoods looked like they were covered in snow. The hail reached up to baseball-sized in some areas.
The destructive storms left a path of hail from Broomfield to Aurora before leaving the metro area just before midnight.
The largest hail report was a 2.75-inch hailstone in southeast Commerce City.
There were also several reports of egg-sized hail, or 2 inches, in Aurora, Broomfield and Henderson. A substantial number of hail reports noted hail larger than an inch, or quarter size, in Denver, Northglenn, Federal Heights, Thornton, Erie and Niwot.
The hail caused significant damage in Thornton and Green Valley Ranch.