Latest Very U.S. Expensive Storm: Hail Bombards Denver Area

This is not an aerial view of a Denver suburb after a January 
winter storm. Instead, it's the morning after an epic
hail storm hit the area. It took all day for that
hail to melt. 

 Hailstorms late Thursday and early Friday strafed the Denver, Colorado area, likely causing hundreds of millions or perhaps over $1 billion in what has proven to be a terribly destructive, stormy spring in the United States.  

Some of the hail was the size of baseballs. That, and the fact that the hail covered such a wide area makes this the worst Denver area hailstorm in 35 years. 

Hail like this is the kind of storm that doesn't completely destroy homes. But if such a storm strikes a populated area like Denver, all the broken windows, smashed cars, ruined siding, damaged roofs and other property losses can quickly add up. 

That's how you get $1 billion or more in damage from hail . 

The damage from the hail was readily apparent in and around Denver.

Numerous cars at Denver International Airport had their back windows blown out, windshields hopelessly cracked and an array of dents all over the vehicles. The hail even tore some door handles off of cars. 

The hail was so deep in some neighborhoods that when dawn broke Friday, it looked like the region suffered a heavy snowstorm and not hail. During the storm, hail accumulated to six inches deep with drifts to 12 inches deep in the hardest hit areas, which put a halt to traffic on the roads. 

In the hardest hit neighborhoods, hail coated the ground for much of Friday, making it look like there'd been a big late-season snowstorm.  Most of the leaves on trees were stripped off, as was paint from walls, bannisters and railings, as you can see by clicking on this link to a news video. 

Another news video (click here) shows a hail drift at least a foot deep on a back patio, hail covering the street and the entire neighborhood. Most of the cars had broken windshields and back windows. 

It seems like it's been Colorado's turn lately to endure severe weather. Last week, the city of Greeley, about 60 miles north of Denver, suffered millions of dollars in damage from a thunderstorm that flooded large swaths of the community. 

The Greeley storm combined lots of hail and heavy rain to clog storm drains and send water coursing into cars and homes. 

Although the pace of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes that dominated the month of May has slowed somewhat, severe weather is going to remain an issue for the foreseeable future. 

This afternoon, there's a threat of severe thunderstorms and a few tornadoes from southern Manitoba in Canada  all the way through the Plains states from North Dakota and Minnesota to Texas. 

The risk diminishes somewhat starting tomorrow, but pockets of severe weather are likely every day somewhere in the United States in the upcoming week.