Storms unleash hail along Front Range

Parker residents use snow shovels in cleanup effort

Thunderstorms unleashed hail Monday afternoon in areas across northeastern Colorado including parts of Douglas County, where residents needed snow shovels to clean up after the storm.

Pea-sized hail pelted the Parker area and piled up 3-inches deep, making the streets difficult for drivers to navigate. Residents took to driveways and sidewalks with shovels and vehicle damage was reported. Plow trucks were dispatched to the The Pinery in Douglas County to clean up after the storm.

“It was plowable hail,” National Weather Service meteorologist Kyle Fredin said.

Other metro areas hit by hail on Monday included Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, Denver, Golden, Parker and Castle Rock.

Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Blanchard was driving by the Outlets at Castle Rock shopping mall, just off I-25, at about 2 p.m. when a deluge of hail hit.

When the hail stopped after a few minutes, “it looked like snow” on the ground, Blanchard said. The sudden storm resulted in a few traffic accidents nearby.

The hail producing thunderstorm worked its way into Kit Carson and Cheyenne counties.

“A farmer in Flagler got golfball sized hail, maybe a little bigger,” Fredin said. “This is the time of year we get that.”

The swift-moving hail storm hit areas of Douglas and Arapahoe counties hard, then swept into Elbert and Lincoln counties, Fredin said.

As the afternoon thunderstorm rumbled its way east, the storm weakened a bit, but was still producing small hail and brief, but heavy, rains.

Just before 2 p.m. Monday, the weather service warned of a severe, swift-moving thunderstorm southeast of Denver International Airport with wind gusts of 60 mph and hail the size of quarters.

Earlier on Monday, at least 60 Southwest Airlines flights were canceled because several planes had been damaged by hail that accompanied powerful thunderstorms that rolled through Sunday night.

Maintenance teams inspected about 20 planes that were on the ground during the overnight storm, according to Southwest media representatives.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post A man covers his head with his coat as he walks down West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood during a heavy rain and hail storm on Monday.

David Zalubowski, The Associated Press A motorist tries to guide a station wagon past a trash can that had washed into the middle of the intersection at South Holly Street and Hampden Avenue after a heavy storm swept through metro Denver.