A 7-day storm and hail forecast for Denver, Aurora, Golden, Parker, Castle Rock, Boulder, Fort Collins, Greeley, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Cheyenne, WY, and Scottsbluff, NE - plus 59+ more Front Range cities - built for commercial and residential property owners who want a heads-up before the next roof-damaging storm.
Radar imagery from RainViewer (NEXRAD). Active warning outlines from the National Weather Service. Pins mark the cities we serve and our offices.
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Forecast data from Open-Meteo (NWS/NOAA model output) and active alerts from the National Weather Service, refreshed every few minutes. Days are color-coded by roof-risk: yellow means storms are possible, orange means an elevated storm risk, and red flags the high-risk days most likely to bring hail or damaging wind. This outlook is informational and not an official weather warning; always follow NWS guidance for life-safety decisions.
Colorado sits in the heart of "Hail Alley," the stretch of the High Plains where Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska meet that NOAA ranks among the most hail-prone regions in North America. The Front Range averages seven to nine hail days a year, and two things make that hail hit harder here than almost anywhere else. Because the ground sits near a mile high, a hailstone falls through far less warm air and has little time to melt before it reaches your roof. And thinner air means less drag, so each stone lands with more force: the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety found that a 1-inch hailstone in Denver carries the same impact energy as a 1.2-inch stone in Dallas, and Front Range storms tend to drop more stones per square foot than storms elsewhere.
The Rocky Mountains are the engine. On summer afternoons the sun heats the high terrain first and fires off thunderstorms over the foothills and ridges. Low-level upslope flow, moist plains air pushed west and lifted against the mountains, feeds those storms, which then track east across the Front Range and onto the plains through the late afternoon and evening. That is when the metro usually takes its hits. Hail and damaging straight-line wind, not tornadoes, are the signature threats from roughly mid-April through mid-September, worst in early-to-mid summer.
A common myth is that these storms roll in over the mountains from the west. They rarely do. The Continental Divide is too high a barrier for most storms to cross intact, and the convection that does spill over it usually weakens and then re-forms on the eastern side. Front Range hail is overwhelmingly born locally, over the eastern foothills, the Palmer Divide, and the plains, where a band of colliding low-level winds known as the Denver Convergence Vorticity Zone, or "Denver Cyclone," can lift the air enough to set off storms just east of the mountains.
The damage is not theoretical. One Denver-metro hailstorm on May 8, 2017 caused about $2.3 billion in insured losses across roughly 267,000 claims, the costliest disaster of any kind in Colorado history, and Colorado hail has run more than $5 billion in insured damage over the past decade.
Just south of the Denver metro runs the Palmer Divide, a high ridge that crests near 7,300 feet around Monument and runs east from the foothills toward Limon, well above Denver at 5,280 feet. It works as a storm engine two ways at once. Being higher, it heats fastest and triggers thunderstorms earliest. And it forces convergence: air rising out of the Denver basin to the north and the Colorado Springs basin to the south collides over the ridge and is pushed upward, building tall storms with the strong updrafts that grow large hail.
It is one of the main reasons south Denver, the Tech Center, Castle Rock, Monument, and Colorado Springs sit among the most hail-prone areas in the country. When the Divide lights up on a summer afternoon, the metro often feels it within a couple of hours.
Last frost early May, first frost early October. USDA zone 5b-6a.
Thinner air and intense UV age shingles faster than at sea level.
Peaks mid-June to mid-July - the single costliest roofing threat on the Front Range.
Dry, windy days spike Red Flag Warnings especially along the foothills and out on the plains.
Heaviest snows come in March; wet spring snow adds real load to roofs.
After hail season and before deep winter, when crews and materials are most available.
Seasonal dates are typical long-term averages - actual timing varies year to year.
Colorado's hail season runs from April through September and peaks from mid-June to mid-July. The Front Range sits in 'Hail Alley,' one of the most hail-prone regions in North America, so large-hail days are most common on summer afternoons.
Hail and wind damage is often invisible from the ground. Bruised or fractured shingles, broken adhesive seals, and granule loss usually show up later as leaks. The reliable way to know is a documented roof inspection after a storm, ideally while the event date is still recent.
Both help. A baseline inspection before a storm establishes your roof's condition, and an inspection after a storm documents any new damage. Having both makes an insurance claim much easier to prove, because the cause and date of loss are clear.
Yes. Commercial Roofing Contractor provides free roof inspections across Colorado, documents any damage, pulls the National Weather Service report for your date of loss, and can meet your insurance adjuster on the roof at no charge.
We cover two regions from two Colorado offices. From our Denver office we serve the Denver metro and Front Range, including Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Arvada, Westminster, Thornton, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Englewood, Wheat Ridge, Commerce City, Northglenn, Brighton, Broomfield, Parker, Castle Rock, Lone Tree, Golden, Louisville, Lafayette, Erie, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland, Fort Collins, Greeley, Windsor, Firestone, Evergreen, and Elizabeth. From our Grand Junction office we serve the Grand Valley and Western Slope, including Grand Junction, Fruita, Palisade, Clifton, Fruitvale, Orchard Mesa, Redlands, Loma, Mack, Whitewater, and De Beque. If your town sits near one of these, call the closest office and we can almost always help.
The Palmer Divide is a high ridge south of Denver that tops out near 7,300 feet around Monument. Winds forced up its slopes fire off thunderstorms that drift north into the metro, making south Denver and the southern suburbs among the most hail-prone areas in the country.
Free inspections, honest answers, no pressure - before or after the storm.
