Hi there, meteorologist
Daniel Grant here in the 9 News weather
Center tracking our spring thunderstorms.
In fact, some of them already turning
severe across parts of the metro area.
I've been looking at large hail out there,
quite the light show and of course
the heavy downpours and even some
flooding to so many of you have been
sending us in photos and videos.
Thanks so much. Keep them coming.
I want to show you the area that
we're going to keep a close eye on
until about 9:00 o'clock tonight.
That's up and down the I-25 corridor all the
way off to I76I-70 heading out toward Lyman.
This is going to be the area under the
severe thunderstorm watch until 9:00.
O'clock the biggest threats
that we're looking at today.
Large hail already seen it,
plus some incredibly strong wind gusts.
Easily upwards of 60 to 65 mph.
The showers and thunderstorms kind
of pushing off of the mountains,
rolling off the foothills and now
impacting the Front Range dramatically.
I just threw on the lightning tracker
across the I-25 corridor as these
storms rumble off to the northeast.
We're looking at more than 200
lightning strikes a lot of folks have
been sending us in all the videos.
And of course capturing the
hail and their backyard too.
I want to start with these storms
up there in Northern Colorado,
these areas in blue that you see
that is the hail that is embedded
within those thunderstorms out there.
So these cells have been severe.
They have been putting down
quite a lot of hail.
Some areas looking at
quarter to nickel size hail.
Again that storm that's
right there across Hwy.
85 tracking to the north heading
toward Greeley as we speak.
Longmont, Erie,
you folks getting in on the action too,
that storm that was over Arvado.
About 20 minutes ago.
Now shifting to the north,
weakening just a bit around Broomfield,
but you can see around Commerce
City and even out toward DIA.
We're looking at heavier pockets of rain.
I had to take off the lightning strikes
even though we know they're out there
just because it's a little tough to see.
Looking across downtown Denver right now,
we have some pretty strong
thunderstorms over the area.
You can just kind of see
by the coloring contours,
especially over Glendale,
incredibly heavy rain coming through
and then a little bit of hail.
Wouldn't be surprised right
there around 2:25 and I25 green.
Inwood Village out there toward
the DTC Centennial,
looking at the potential for
some hail within this cell.
This cell has not gone severe,
however,
we could be tracking some pretty
large hail within that and also
strong winds just to the South.
I want to show you kind of what's
coming up the chain and this next
storm that just rolled off the
foothills is going to be impacting our.
Neighbors around Castle Pines,
N Within the next 15 minutes.
Who did you hear that Thunder?
It is rocking and rolling across
downtown Denver and right here
overhead the 9 news studios.
These are the severe thunderstorm warnings
that we have in place at this moment.
We'll start with the one to the north.
This one is going to be
impacting folks around Longmont.
This is going to impact folks
around the Loveland area too.
It's lasting until about 3:30,
so we still have another half hour to go.
It's tracking off to the north into the east,
moving about 20 mph.
These are relatively slow moving
thunderstorms hence the reason we have
been looking at some flooding out there.
A lot of St.
flooding folks trying to get a
jump start on the holiday weekend.
It is a mess out on the roads.
Hang tight if you can because
these storms are going to be
off to the northeastern plains
within the next couple of hours.
That particular sell out there is
actually going to be putting down
potentially quarter sized hail.
Looks like the National Weather
Service is actually just.
Issued another severe thunderstorm warning,
this one now extended out until
3:45 in parts of Weld County.
Just because this is going to be
impacting our friends out there
and Greeley before you know it.
That cell that I showed you out
there moving to the north about
15 mph actually we have seen
some reports within this one the
potential for half dollar size hail
that's going to do some damage.
So if you live in this area,
this Polygon that I'm showing
you that encompasses Hwy.
85 heading up toward Greeley, I would.
Ask you just throw the car in the
garage if you can the carport.
Make sure that you keep that safe.
Because who this hail means business.
The next severe thunderstorm warning That's
just to the north of the Brighton area.
That one remains into
effect until about 3:15.
Hail a little smaller,
but still could do some serious damage.
I'll click on this severe thunderstorm
warning just to the South near Arvada.
This one is going to last us until 3:00
O'clock just a couple of minutes away.
We'll see if the National Weather
Service extends that out.
I was looking at that.
Cell and it does appear to be weakening.
However, half dollar size hail
certainly could be a possibility.
With that,
let's go out to some video because you folks,
our viewers are awesome.
Viewers have been our eyes
and ears on the ground.
This is around Golden into Arvada.
You can just see all of that
heavy rain coming through.
Even the hail also has been
hitting folks out there.
Yeah,
looks like maybe pea size hail in the front.
Drive This one actually is coming
to us from some viewers out there.
Looks like Ruben sent this one
in in Westminster,
the front yard.
Of course the classic spot got
to capture what Mother Nature is
putting down and it looks like
once again more hail out there.
Another video sent in to us by Aiden.
This one looks to be I'm getting reports
from Northglenn, actually pea sized hail,
nothing severe but certainly I know a lot
of folks have been doing gardening just
trying to get excited about the spring
season and hopefully this hail is not doing.
Too much damage as far as that is concerned.
We do have another video too
that I wanted to show you.
This one coming in to us from Arvada
that was actually from the cell that was
just overhead about 20-30 minutes ago.
Incredibly heavy downpours. St.
flooding out there too it looks like.
Yeah maybe in the leaves coming down with
the winds coming out of these thunderstorms.
Our Nine News crews have been
out on the ground.
Meteorologist Lauren Robinson you're in the.
Titan No, you're not in the Titan.
You're in another truck,
but you have been monitoring these storms.
You're actually at that one on
the South side of town, right?
That's right. You were talking a little
bit ago about storms on I-25 making your
way between Denver towards Centennial,
and that's exactly where we are right now.
We did see some heavier rainfall a
minute ago, but let's take a look outside
so you can see our current conditions
where we do still have this rainfall.
We did see some hail not too long ago.
We were on I-70 and Wadsworth and actually
got some pretty decent sized hail.
I couldn't tell exactly how large it was,
but it definitely made our vehicle
sound like the inside of a drum.
So says my photographer.
Tom Cole.
But it was we do still have more
areas where we are expecting hail
and we're driving toward one of those
areas now where we do have another
pulse that's making its way along
I-25 between Denver and Centennial.
So that's why we're on I-25 southbound here.
We're approaching the University Blvd. Exit.
Things right now have started to calm,
but just momentarily And if you are
in one of these areas that's kind
of seeing the rain die down a bit,
don't let that throw you off because
we do still have several.
Cells all around the area that do hold
quite a bit of rainfall, strong winds,
even the potential for hail.
So as you can see here,
cars have slowed down quite a bit.
Earlier when we did see the hail
on I-70 and Wadsworth,
we saw those cars kind of packed under
the bridges, under the overpasses.
What you're not supposed to do right now,
things are looking a little better.
So cars are driving along despite
or driving along with traffic.
Traffic is kind of holding us up quite a bit,
but again.
You do just want to watch for these
wet roads and you could hit several
different spots where we're seeing
hail all around the Denver metro area.
So that's certainly what I would
recommend watching out for.
If you don't have to be on the roads,
certainly don't.
You don't want to take those hail risks.
And if you have cars parked outside,
if you have the ability or the
luxury to bring them inside,
certainly do that for the
rest of the evening.
But we will be out here through the
rest of the evening continuing to
follow these storms just so you know
what to expect and how to stay safe.
Again, we're on I-25.
Southbound heading towards Centennial,
kind of going in and out from
a couple of other sales,
but we will continue to keep you
updated on what you can find out there.
I think we're going next out
to meteorologist Chris Bianchi.
Chris Woody's out for us.
Yeah, Lauren and you kind of just said a
couple of important notes a second ago that.
Folks should obviously not be
seeking shelter right now with
their vehicles under an overpass.
And another thing to keep in mind,
just saw a lot of cars out there.
These storms are gonna last another
hour or so for the majority of the
metro area and then that's it.
I know it's the start of
the Memorial Day weekend.
You want to get out and about.
Maybe you're heading up to the mountains.
If you give it an hour things
will get a lot better.
I'm going to show you that
in detail in just a second,
but also want to show you what we've
seen here over the last little while.
Mountain View of course,
just the northwest of Denver,
1 1/2 inch sized hail for
a little bit of context.
The size of a ping pong ball,
Federal Heights 1.25 inches.
That's the size of a half dollar.
And then also for us here
in Northwest Denver,
again half dollar sized hail.
And this is about penny sized hail
for us in both Wheat Ridge and
Arvada I would imagine as these
reports continue to roll on in.
We'll see quite a few quarter to
maybe even close to ping pong,
ball sized hail reports.
It's a pretty impressive stuff.
Anything that is 1 inch in diameter
or higher is considered to be
severe caliber hail.
Now one thing that also stands out
about this, Danielle and Lauren,
we were just talking about this
a few minutes ago as well,
the span of this,
basically everybody is getting a storm today.
The last few days most of us maybe one
part of the metro area got a storm,
the rest of the metro area got left alone.
Today,
basically everybody is getting
a storm that's kind of a little
interesting to me.
And we've got about 100 miles or so
of storms spanning the entire I-25 corridor.
And those severe thunderstorm
warnings right now mostly concentrated
on the Northside of town.
But with the storm that Lauren was just
in a second ago on the South side of town,
one thing I want to note as well as news,
how this storm just
starting to kind of fizzle.
On down,
that may be a little bit of good news
and that's why I think I'm pretty
confident that over the next hour or
so things should really start to calm down.
These storms are moving into
a rain cooled environment.
That cooler air,
it's not good for thunderstorms.
That's likely going to weaken them as
they head over the next hour or so,
at least here in the immediate
Denver metro area.
So let's time this out for you, 330,
that's only about 25 minutes from now.
These storms pull off to the
north and the east.
So I think from coming get up
into Weld County as well as and
certainly into Morgan County and kind
of far southeastern Larimer counties,
I think these are the areas
that will be dealing with those
storms probably the longest.
But even for those you joining
us from say Locke, Bowie,
Fort Lupton on north into Greeley Hwy.
34, you probably got another hour
or so of storms together then
things should start to get calmer.
For you as well, by 4:30 notice even again,
really out of the storms.
Fort Collins, out of the storms,
Brighton, DIA,
basically everybody storm free and
can't entirely rule out another shower,
even another clap of Thunder
once we get past this.
But come 4:35 o'clock,
things will be significantly calmer
for us here across the metro area
and those storms continue to lift
their way off towards the east.
Now that said,
those storms do continue to
push the way off to the east.
We calm on down here in the metro area,
but for friends out on the eastern plains,
we haven't talked about you a whole lot yet.
And these storms,
as they continue to pull the
way off towards the east,
they will continue to strengthen.
So if you're watching us from Fort Morgan,
from Sterling, Holyoke,
Lyman getting out here to Akron Ray,
you've still got unfortunately a few
more hours of this severe weather
threat to go out on the Eastern Plains
from a Fort Morgan Lyman line on east.
That's where those storms
will hang on the longest.
In fact,
you might notice out here in
the Powers and Boca counties,
far southeastern Colorado.
And may stay a while longer
with those storms,
but then Denver will clear things
on out for tomorrow morning.
By the way,
another threat for severe
storms again for tomorrow.
I know,
I know we're heading into the
Memorial Day week and we don't
want to be talking about those
storms for tomorrow as well,
but we've got that threat once
again coming up for tomorrow.
Want to leave you with this before
I send things back over to Danielle.
We got the severe thunderstorm watch.
That goes until 9:00 o'clock tonight.
This includes the entire Denver metro area,
the entire I-25 urban corridor
and extends E the Denver area.
I think this is a Danielle where
I'm gonna set things over to you,
I think for the Denver area, I think.
Probably agree with me here.
The threat is really for the
next hour or two,
and then things should really start
to calm on down for us, right?
Yeah,
absolutely, Chris.
We're kind of in the thick of it right now.
That's why we wanted to hop on and just
kind of alert our viewers to what's
happening right now and which areas
have been looking at the most severe
storms that have been popping up.
I like that you kind of re emphasize the
fact that unfortunately we're gonna have
to deal with those storms again tomorrow.
I know it's Memorial Day weekend.
A lot of folks have plans,
but you know what might as well be ahead
of it because you want to be out hiking.
It's just such a great reminder,
right, for folks to head indoors
when you hear Thunder. Yeah,
it's Mother Nature signal.
You hear that Thunder.
You're close enough to
be struck by lightning,
So you hear that Thunder.
That's time to get inside.
But Danielle, you mentioned it again.
It's me in Colorado.
So this is the time of
year we get these storms,
unfortunately.
They are time here with
the holiday weekend.
I know. And The thing is to the past
couple of severe weather seasons,
***** has been so quiet
here around the Front Range.
So I feel like we're almost
out of practice a little bit.
Folks are like, wait what?
There's afternoon thunderstorms every day.
It's a really good point because
the last few years have been
kind of duds severe weather wise
for us across Eastern Colorado.
We haven't had a kind of a normal quote,
UN quote severe weather season here
in Colorado. What Danielle since.
20/17/2018 as the last time
we had a proper one.
So the last few years have been kind
of anomalies in terms of the fact
that we just haven't had the usual
severe weather that we are accustomed
to here along the Front Range.
What we're getting right now,
what we're getting this week,
if you're new to Colorado folks,
well this is.
Business as usual, right,
Exactly right, exactly right.
And now we're kind of in the thick of it.
And while we are having to deal with
the severe threats of all of this,
we're also getting that really nice
beneficial rain too that's coming down
that we've already seen within the past
couple of weeks some dramatic improvements.
As far as the drought Monitor is concerned,
we were looking at severe drought across
much of Eastern Colorado and now I mean
we're kind of looking really good.
This is, I mean if you get rid of the hail,
which look, I understand there's.
Probably in some cases on the north
side of the metro area there's probably
so still some bust of windshields
from where we had a couple weeks ago.
That said, what we've seen
in terms of the rainfall,
5 inches of rain in a month and we avoided
mostly high end significant flooding.
That is fantastic news and it
looks like Ireland out there,
once we get past all this hail,
it is so green. Absolutely.
Hey Chris, I want to bring a.
Back on to Weather 9 if we can,
just because we have,
I want to kind of show folks exactly
where we are looking at as far as
the severe thunderstorm warnings go.
I just threw on the lightning tracker.
We have 308 strikes up and
down the I-25 corridor,
but a couple of those severe thunderstorm
warnings that were going earlier that
I showed you have since expired.
Now we only have the severe thunderstorm
warning in place for Weld County until 3:45.
Again, this is going to include Hwy. 85.
Within that cell we do have the potential
for seeing half dollar sized hail.
So and that could be certainly
messy out there,
but this is kind of a look at the storm.
It's pushing to the north,
impacting our friends around Platteville,
Greeley,
Alt and again through Brighton as well.
Heavy downpours,
a whole lot of lightning in fact
we can throw on the lightning too.
So you just get a good idea of
what's happening out there and
it's a show to say the very least.
Of course that one cell to the South,
it is not severe,
however it is still putting
down some incredibly heavy rain.
This is the one that meteorologist
Lauren Robinson was driving through.
Right now it looks like the
heaviest rain right there around
225 heading out toward Aurora,
and eventually we'll be
moving out toward DIA.
Can't rule out potentially looking
at a ground stop out there just
because of all the lightning in place.
The heavy rains plus one of my
favorite features is the fact that.
We can see the hail,
the hail course within these storms
putting down some pretty impressive numbers.
This is actually just within the
past hour alone of course the worst
of the hail within that cell around
Wheat Ridge in Arvada that we showed
you just to the north of Brighton,
they were looking at quarter sized
hail that's just indicative of
those blue colors And then further
to the South and to Centennial,
it looks like pea size within
the Gray colors,
but it has been quite the show out there.
I wanted to show you one of our
C dot cameras just to kind of get
a good idea of what is going.
Going on around parts of the metro
area again, this looks like I-25 and Orchard.
I know it's Friday.
It's a Friday before a holiday weekend.
The heavy rain is coming through,
folks having to deal with these
storms moving through and it looks
like folks taking it nice and slow.
Well, you have no other option,
right?
Because we are looking at so much
rain coming through,
I wanted to give you a quick glance
at a few more photos and videos that
have come into the digital networks
of Nine News. We love it when you.
Folks can be our eyes and ears on the ground.
Richard showing us this one I 70 in
Kipling out there PETA dime sized hail
and it looks like it's not causing too
many issues but certainly folks are
like what is going on? It's Friday.
I want to get on to my weekend.
Come on Mother Nature.
This one heavy rain pea sized hail
out there in Longmont within that cell
that we've been monitoring to this
one PETA penny sized hail in Arvada.
That was the cell that we were
tracking about 45 minutes ago and
I love to compare and contrast.
If you can do this for us, this is awesome.
Are we having fun yet, Longmont?
Oh you're funny Matthew.
You can see it looks like about penny sized,
maybe dime sized hail within that one.
Victoria, the backyard in Westminster
getting dumped on not only with rain,
but maybe a little bit of small hail too.
Of course the gusty winds helping
to rip off maybe some leaves on
the trees out there too.
And again, hopefully everyone's.
Gardens are going to be a OK with this
storm that has been pushing across
parts of the metro area this afternoon.
No indication exactly where
this is at but I feel yeah,
it's across parts of the metro area where
we're looking at some small hail out there.
Marble size tail OKI love this video too
because this one I believe in Evergreen.
She was out there.
She had to rescue the flowers.
Look it out quickly.
She grabbed that planter box
and raced inside.
As always, we're going to be
keeping a close eye on these.
Storms for you over the course
of the next couple of hours.
Again,
the worst of it,
we're dealing with it right now.
It's going to continue for about
another hour before everything
shifts east of I-25 again.
We have that one severe cell
into parts of Weld County.
Hail will be the biggest threat
out of that one.
I'm going to jump in if we get
any more alerts for you,
but right now we will send you
back to our regularly scheduled
programming and we'll see you
today on 9 News at 4:00.