While Kansas may be the Hail State, the Colorado Front Range is definitely the nation’s hail capitol. The Front Range seems to get more severe hail events than anywhere else, which explains why we have the second-highest number of hail damage claims. In fact, Colorado policyholders from just one insurance provider filed 66,800 claims totaling $598 million for hail damage to homes and vehicles last year.
When severe hail storms roll into the Front Range, your vehicles and roofing are not the only things you need to worry about. Oftentimes, when your roof sustains hail damage, chances are your gutters did too. Hail can put dents and dings into your gutter system, and depending on the severity of the storm and the size of the hail, the weather conditions can even cause your gutters to crack or sag away from your home. Any sustained gutter damage needs to be addressed quickly, as damaged or leaking gutters can cause damage to your home’s siding and foundation, as well as the landscaping surrounding it.
The Most Memorable Hailstorms in The Front Range
At Front Range Seamless Gutters, our experienced gutter contractors have been around long enough to experience some of the most destructive hail storms in Northern Colorado. Hail gutter repair is something that takes professional knowledge and expertise, which is why you can rely on our team whenever a passing storm leave you with gutter hail damage. In today’s post, we are going to reflect on some of the area’s historic hail storms that had many homeowners calling local gutter companies for gutter repair.
July 2019
Let’s start with the most recent hail storm that passed through. While it wasn’t as severe as some of the catastrophes we will be getting into later, the quick storm that passed through was definitely enough to make homeowners mute the TV to see what was going on outside. The hail storm did some significant damage to roofing and many people found their vehicles with dents, dings, and cracked windshields.
May 2017
In May of 2017 the Denver metro area was hit with a monster thunderstorm, and parts of Northern Colorado definitely caught some of it. Reports of baseball-sized hail would eventually lead to $1.4 billion in insured damages. The storm now ranks as the state’s most expensive insured disaster in history.
July 1990
Once a severe thunderstorm developed near Estes Park and traveled southeast, golf ball-sized to baseball-sized hail plummeted the Front Range. At the time, this was the costliest hail storm in Colorado history — many people even crowned it as the worst in American history. Paint was stripped off of street signs, street lights and traffic signals were broken, home and vehicle windows were shattered, and thousands of shrubs, plants, and trees were stripped of their foliage. The hail storm was so bad in some areas that the storm drains began to overflow, causing streets and basements to flood. Losses exceeded well over $1 billion in today’s totals. If the hail was severe enough to injure people, imagine what it did to cost-effective aluminum gutters that were popular at the time.
Don’t Overlook Gutter Hail Damage
Thankfully the Colorado hail season just recently ended, but will be here again before you know it. Whenever there is a hail storm that is severe enough to damage your roof or your vehicle, chances are your gutters sustained damage too. After a hail storm passes through, go out and do a visual inspection of your gutters, looking for dents, dings, cracks, and leaks. If you notice any gutter damage at all, contact the experienced gutter contractors at Front Range Seamless Gutters!