Severe weather has brought large hail, floods, and property damage to all of Northeast Colorado over the past week

Before this last week, the big weather story was how dry conditions in Northeast Colorado have been. The severe weather activity on just about every day over the past week has eliminated that. Wednesday, June 24^th, brought a slew of severe weather conditions across the entire region, which has wreaked a bit of havoc on the area. Each day has brought out severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings to every county in Northeast Colorado, along with heavy rain, large, destructive hail, a massive amount of lightning, and flooding. The weather pattern shifted over the weekend, starting with Saturday, June 20^th, and continuing since then, with every day bringing longer sets of storms.

The latest round began Wednesday afternoon (June 24) at 3:20 pm with a severe thunderstorm warning issued from the National Weather Service for Weld and Morgan Counties, with ping-pong to baseball-sized hail reported, along with 60 mph wind gusts. The watches, warnings, and advisories would continue for hours after that. Areas around Jackson Lake, New Raymer, and Stoneham were affected first, with the severe warnings extended every 15 minutes from there. Tennis and baseball-sized hail were reported near Weldona, Goodrich, and Antelope Springs, with alert systems signaling the warning throughout the evening. Emergency alerts were flashing on cell phones, as heavy, quarter-sized hail was falling in Fort Morgan, Brush, Log Lane Village, and at the Fort Morgan Airport. Broken tree branches and leaves were scattered everywhere, and in Brush, the hail stacked up as if a blizzard had hit the town. Tornado warnings were issued for every county throughout the afternoon and late evening, as major cells tracked east on I-76, and Highway 34. A tornado warning was issue for Logan County as a funnel was detected between Iliff and Crook around 5 pm. The system moved to the south into Phillips County, dumping on Holyoke and Haxtun. A tornado warning for Phillips County was issued to last until 7 pm for that part of the region as well. Wind gusts of 60-80 mph were reported in multiple locations. All of Northeast Colorado and the tri-state region had tornado watches and flood advisories lasting between 11 pm and midnight, with severe thunderstorms continuing through the same timeframe.

A sample of a tennis ball-sized hailstone in Wiggins from the storms on Tuesday, June 23rd

People woke up to lots of flooding on Thursday morning. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office posted pictures of County Road KK.75, south of Platner, completely washed out, and County Road RR flooded and impassable between Otis and Highway 36. Highway 34 in Akron looked more like a lake than a state highway, as several roads were closed Thursday morning due to floods or debris, like giant fallen tree limbs, blocking the roadways. A flood watch remains in effect for Yuma County until midnight Thursday, as Yuma and Wray experienced a deluge of rain throughout the night, with localized flooding occurring in many spots.

In the aftermath, lots of homes and businesses in places like Wiggins and Sterling had damage to their roofs and siding, with giant holes puncturing structures. Car windshields were destroyed, and yards were completely covered with hailstones that sounded like a sledgehammer as they made contact with the surfaces. Power outages were rampant, with crews working overnight to restore power. The cleanup will continue across the northeastern plains, as there is another chance for showers and thunderstorms for Thursday and Friday; some of those storms could be severe, with lesser chances of that for Friday. Saturday and Sunday will dry out, as the sun will come back, and temps will climb well into the 90’s for the weekend.