Colorado Hail by the Numbers

From 2016 through 2025, NOAA's Storm Events Database logged 4,491 county-level hail reports in Colorado^[1]. Activity swings widely year to year: 2023 produced 769 reports including a 5.25 inch hailstone, while 2022 logged 205. Among Northern Colorado and Western Slope counties, Weld County recorded 431 reports over the decade, Larimer 143, Boulder 131, and Mesa 14^[1]. The Rocky Mountain Insurance Association notes Coloradans can count on three or four catastrophic hailstorms, meaning at least $25 million in insured damage, every year^[2].

Counts are county-level report records from NOAA's Storm Events Database; one storm can generate multiple records, and reporting completeness varies by year, so year-to-year swings partly reflect reporting differences rather than storm counts alone^[1].

Colorado ranked second in the nation for hail insurance claims from 2017 through 2019 with 380,066 claims, 14 percent of the U.S. total, behind only Texas^[5]. In 2018 alone, Colorado was first in the nation with 191,679 hail claims, the only year in that span any state out-claimed Texas^[5].

Two Colorado cities rank among the top three U.S. cities for hail claims: Denver second with 51,887 and Colorado Springs third with 38,044, and Greeley ranks seventh nationally with 23,556^[5]. By 2024 data, LexisNexis ranked Colorado's catastrophe claim loss cost the highest of any state^[6], and the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association reports that 54 percent of Colorado homeowners insurance claims are catastrophe-related^[2].

Hail is the single biggest driver of Colorado homeowners insurance costs. The Colorado Division of Insurance found hail accounts for 26 to 54 percent of the total homeowners premium depending on county: 52.7 percent in Weld County, 51.6 percent in Larimer, 49.8 percent in Denver, and 25.9 percent in Mesa County^[8]. Nationally, wind and hail claims average $14,747 per claim and are the most frequent homeowners claim type, filed by roughly 1 in 36 insured homes each year^[9]. Nearly two-thirds of hail claims are classified as catastrophic^[6].