DENVER — Large hail is any stone an inch in diameter or bigger. One inch is about the size of a quarter, and large hail has covered the state of Colorado in 2023.
In fact, it’s the hailiest season ever recorded. Using the term "most hail" just doesn’t fully characterize how crazy this year has really been.
Here’s one way to slice the data. The National Weather Service has issued 892 severe thunderstorm warnings this year. That’s the warning for a storm that is capable of producing one inch or bigger hail.
That’s 343 more warnings than the next most active season in 2016. That data goes back to 1986.
Another metric would be large hail frequency. This season there have been 70 days in which there's been at least one large hail report made through Jul. 20. That also makes 2023 the hailiest season on record. It should be noted that the data only goes back to 2006 and does not include the very active hail seasons during the 1990s.
Denver County has had large hail reported on seven different days this season. That’s the most there on record.
And the 19 days of large hail in El Paso County this year is the most in any county of any year through Jul. 20.
Those records also go back to 2006.
Any way you slice the numbers it all shows that 2023 is the hailiest year on record for Colorado.
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