Colorado Hail Season

Why the Front Range gets hit so often

The Denver metro area sits inside the Hail Alley region, roughly the corridor between Denver, Colorado Springs and Cheyenne, Wyoming, where a mix of altitude, dry air and strong summer updrafts produces hailstorms more often than almost anywhere else in the country. It is a well-documented pattern in the area's weather, not a one-off bad year.

When it happens

The season runs roughly May through August, with the sharpest spike in late May through July, when afternoon thunderstorms build over the mountains and move east across the metro area. A single storm is typically brief — often well under half an hour — but the hail itself can be large enough to dent every exposed panel on a parked car in that time.

What that means for your car

• Vehicles parked outside during peak season are the ones most exposed — a covered spot or garage during a storm watch makes a real difference.
• Damage from a short storm is often worse than it looks from a distance; a full inspection catches dents an eyeball check misses.
• Repair shops get busy fast after a big storm — the sooner a car is booked in, the sooner it is back.
• A comprehensive insurance claim for hail does not raise your rate in Colorado, so there is no reason to delay filing one.

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