{"id":16894,"date":"2025-08-16T17:05:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T23:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/scientists-chase-storms-across-the-mountain-west-to-study-hails-growing-threat\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:38:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:38:33","slug":"scientists-chase-storms-across-the-mountain-west-to-study-hails-growing-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/scientists-chase-storms-across-the-mountain-west-to-study-hails-growing-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists chase storms across the Mountain West to study hail\u2019s growing threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Scientists
Scientists set up measuring devices to capture hail observations near Dodge City, Kansas, as part ICECHIP. The project is the largest field study of hail in the U.S. in 40 years. (Landon Moeller, ICECHIP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Dewey Kahawai was asleep when he heard a knock on his bedroom window.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sprang out of bed and thought, \u2018Oh my gosh, someone\u2019s trying to get into my house,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That was soon followed by thumping on the roof as a hailstorm tore through Milliken, a town about 50 miles north of Denver. Residents reported ice chunks nearly the size of baseballs.<\/p>\n

Just a few years ago, Kahawai had to replace his roof after another storm. This time, in late June, his house was unscathed. But by morning, his phone was buzzing with calls and texts. Kahawai runs his own company, American Pride Auto Glass. For two straight weeks, he worked 14-hour days, crisscrossing town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were people\u2019s cars that were literally destroyed,\u201d he said. \u201cThree- or 4-inch diameter holes through the glass on their vehicles; front windshields with six, eight hits.\u201d<\/p>\n

He estimated he alone responded to hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. A month after the storm, Milliken looks mostly back to normal. But the hints of the damage are still there: signs for repair businesses dot lawns; bundles of shingles are piled on roofs ready to be replaced; car doors look like they\u2019ve absorbed a few punches.<\/p>\n

\"Dewey
Dewey Kahawai, owner of American Pride Auto Glass, fixed car windshields for weeks after a hailstorm hit his town of Milliken in late June. (Rachel Cohen\/KUNC)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Mounting costs of hail damage<\/div>\n

Ian Giammanco, a lead research meteorologist at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, said hail impacts to cars, crops and roofs add up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not as big of a life safety threat as, say, a storm surge or flash flooding or a tornado,\u201d Giammanco said. \u201cBut it happens every single year and it\u2019s costing us just tens of billions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The costs from hail are increasing, reaching nearly $50 billion in 2023, according to Giammanco. The trend is partly explained by more people moving to places with hailstorms. And while research points to fewer hailstones overall with climate change, the hail that does fall could be more destructive.<\/p>\n

In Colorado, hail is a bigger driver of rising insurance premiums than wildfires.<\/p>\n

\"Chunks
Chunks of hail remain in a neighborhood of eastern Greeley May 29, 2024, the day after severe thunderstorms swept the area. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIf you look at this growing loss picture, this is something that is not sustainable at this rate,\u201d Giammanco said.<\/p>\n

Perfect spheres? Hardly ever<\/div>\n

Despite hail\u2019s climbing toll, scientists still have fundamental unanswered questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow fast does a hailstone fall? How does it melt?\u201d said Becky Adams-Selin, a scientist at Atmospheric and Environmental Research. \u201cAgain, all things that seem pretty basic, but are surprisingly difficult to try to unpack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many existing weather models assume hailstones are perfect spheres, but researchers know that\u2019s rarely the case.<\/p>\n

To find long sought answers, Adams-Selin is leading a huge team of researchers, including Giammanco, on the largest study of hail in the U.S. in 40 years. The project, called the In-situ Collaborative Experiment for the Collection of Hail in the Plains, or ICECHIP, is supported by a $11 million National Science Foundation grant. It includes researchers from Colorado State University and the University of Colorado.<\/p>\n

For six weeks this summer, scientists chased hailstorms across the Great Plains and Mountain West, where hail is most common.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some fantastic storms,\u201d said Adams-Selin.<\/p>\n

\"University
University of Colorado researchers follow a storm brewing in south central Kansas. (Patrick Campbell\/University of Colorado)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Using radar, the team would predict the path of a storm and deploy an array of equipment across several miles. That included foam pads to quantify hail\u2019s force, disdrometers to measure raindrop size and funnels to collect falling hail and measure its speed. Giammanco\u2019s team even brought cutting-edge roofing shingle designs to test their real-world durability.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then we\u2019d get back out of the way and let the hailstorm run over it,\u201d Adams-Selin said.<\/p>\n

They also snapped photos with high-tech cameras and flew drones into clouds. After storms passed, researchers piled out of cars and scooped hailstones into freezers.<\/p>\n

Unlocking clues hidden in hailstones<\/div>\n

\"Anthony
Anthony Bernal Ayala, a scientist working on ICECHIP, examines a slice of a hailstone under a microscope. Researchers are hoping to build the largest database of hailstones as part of the project. (Rachel Cohen\/KUNC)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Now, 26 boxes of hailstones collected from as far south as the Mexican border and as far north as Canada are stacked in a cold lab at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.<\/p>\n

Inside the closet-size freezer, Anthony Bernal Ayala, a post-doctorate researcher clad in a full-body puffy suit, examined the hail preserved in Ziploc bags. Over the next few months, he\u2019ll record each one\u2019s size and weight, take 3D scans and even slice some open with a band saw.<\/p>\n

\u201cA hailstone is kind of like its own lab,\u201d Bernal Ayala said. \u201cIt\u2019s a chronicle of time that will save its information within its crystalline structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A hailstone collected in Silverton, Texas. Researchers are now analyzing data from the storms and studying hailstones in the laboratory. (Landon Moeller, ICECHIP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The big insights, he said, will come from matching each hailstone with the storm data. That\u2019ll uncover why certain ingredients in the sky \u2013 like temperature, humidity, wind \u2013 produce a different recipe of hail that falls to the ground. Researchers said the information will drastically expand the knowledge scientists currently have about hail.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to blow it out of the water,\u201d said Adams-Selin.<\/p>\n

The results could help better predict hailstorms from radar data and give more detailed warnings. Beyond just forecasting the maximum size of hail, they could also predict how long it\u2019ll fall and whether it\u2019ll be pushed by wind.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be awesome,\u201d said Adam-Selin, noting it could provide just enough notice to pull cars into a garage, drape netting over crops or find shelter.<\/p>\n

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

largest study in 40 yearshas CU and CSU researchers creating a massive database they hope can help them understand the force and features of hail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16894"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20452,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16894\/revisions\/20452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16894"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}