Hail storm hits homes, farms north of Greeley

July 28--Wednesday night was calm in Greeley, but just a few miles north, hail as large as 2 1/2 inches in diameter pelted homes, crops and farm equipment.

"Our damage was mostly trees being shredded," Daniel Geary said. "There was a lot of debris on the ground."

The Eaton gallery-owner wasn't too worried about his home near Galeton or the others around it.

"Farmers are the ones we're concerned with," he said.

Just down the road from him, a cornfield looked destroyed.

"It's just heartbreaking," he said.

Janine Freeman owns J9 Crop Insurance in Ault. She was busy Thursday.

"We had 20 guys turn in claims," she said.

The damage was widespread. Some customers were east of Nunn, she said. Others were near Galeton, some near Kersey.

"I don't think anybody's a total disaster, but they're pretty blue," she said. "It's always devastating when you wake up and you realize your corn crop has been stripped."

One client said this was the third time he was hit this season. In one of the worst cases, a man said the storm busted out the windshields on four of his vehicles and three of his tractors.

"If it was knocking out windshields you know it was good," Freeman said.

Storms like these are typical this time of year, said Kyle Fredin, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Boulder.

"We expect afternoon thunderstorms -- that's frequent," he said.

The North American Monsoon brings in rain and storms, and it's responsible for some of the most severe hail damage the state has seen.

Denver got the worst hail damage in Colorado history in 2014, and Fort Collins had a violent hailstorm in 1979, Fredin said. Both occurred during July -- Denver's on July 11, and Fort Collins' on July 23.

The reported hail ranged in size from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches, Fredin said. Kersey seemed to get it the worst.

Neither Xcel Energy nor Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association -- the two providers in the area -- reported outages.

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