Colorado Hail Storm Report, June 8, 2026: Wheat Ridge, Golden and The Pinery

A hail-producing storm crossed Colorado on June 8, 2026. The National Weather Service logged 27 hail reports inside Red Hawk’s service area that day, the largest at 1.75 inches. Wheat Ridge, Golden and The Pinery took the most reports.

The Colorado hail map — June 8, 2026

Every hail report in Red Hawk’s service area

These are National Weather Service Local Storm Reports — hail an observer found on the ground, not a radar estimate. Times are MDT.

Reports concentrated in: Wheat Ridge 9 reports, Golden 5 reports, The Pinery 3 reports, Arvada 1 report, Fort Lupton 1 report, Castle Pines 1 report. A hail report always names the largest stone an observer found, not the average size that fell across every roof.

The same storm system hit far harder on the rural eastern plains — 2.50-inch hail measured at Punkin Center that afternoon, a measured 3.40 inches southwest of Cedar Point, and ruler-measured stones of 3.00 to 4.00 inches that night north of Stratton and south of Bethune and Burlington, with the final reports arriving just after midnight.

Why 1.75-inch hail matters to an asphalt roof

Damage scales hard with stone size. A one-inch stone falls at about 41 mph and lands with roughly 1.3 joules of energy. A 1.75 inch stone falls at about 65 mph and lands with roughly 16 joules — about thirteen times the impact. Denver-area elevation adds another 8 to 10 percent to fall speed.

Published impact studies put the onset of functional damage near 1.00 inch for three-tab asphalt shingles, 1.25 inches for architectural shingles, and 2.00 inches for Class 4 impact-rated products. The largest report on this day was 1.75 inches, past the threshold for architectural shingles.

The damage usually is not visible from the ground. Hail bruises the shingle — fracturing the mat beneath a surface that still looks intact — and the bruised area then sheds its protective granules over the following months. A roof hit in June can look fine all summer and start leaking by winter.

Radar-estimated hail is not measured hail

Radar hail algorithms output a deliberate high-end estimate of what may exist inside a storm cloud, not a measurement of what landed on your roof. Radar estimates characteristically run above what observers actually recover. Treat the shaded swath on the map as the search area and the ground reports as the confirmed observations. If a contractor tells you radar showed three-inch hail at your address, ask whether anyone measured it.

What to do if you were under it

1. Check from the ground, not the roof. Walking a hail-struck roof is how people get hurt.
2. Look in your gutters. Granules washing off in quantity is the most common early sign.
3. Check soft metal. Roof vents, gutters, flashing, the mailbox, AC condenser fins. Dents in soft metal date the storm.
4. Photograph what you find with your phone. Phone photos carry a timestamp. Do not edit them.
5. Get it inspected. Especially if this storm was months ago — that is exactly when bruising starts to surface.

Radar estimate and ground reports by city — June 8, 2026

The map above is the search area. This table asks two narrower questions for each Red Hawk service-area city: did any NWS ground report come from inside the city’s actual boundary, whatever locality name the NWS filed it under; and did a radar-estimated hail band of 1.00 inch or larger cross that boundary? A ground report is an observation and always lists the city. The band is an MRMS estimate, not a measurement.

Radar estimated hail to 1.00 inch over part of The Pinery (about 85 percent of it, in its west part). On the ground, one National Weather Service hail report came from inside The Pinery city limits: 1.50 inches (measured). Two more reports naming The Pinery (“4 W The Pinery”, “4 E The Pinery”) came from outside that boundary.

Radar estimated hail to 1.00 inch over part of the Central Park neighborhood of Denver (about 24 percent of it, in its northwest part). No ground observer reported from the Central Park neighborhood of Denver that day — reports come from where people happen to be, and their absence is not evidence that nothing fell.

Radar estimated hail to 1.00 inch over part of Castle Pines (about 16 percent of it, in its southeast part). On the ground, one National Weather Service hail report named Castle Pines (“3 NE Castle Pines”), the largest 1.00 inches (measured), but the report point lies outside the city boundary.

Radar estimated hail to 1.00 inch over part of the Park Hill neighborhood of Denver (about 16 percent of it, in its north part). No ground observer reported from the Park Hill neighborhood of Denver that day — reports come from where people happen to be, and their absence is not evidence that nothing fell.

Radar estimated hail to 1.00 inch over part of Commerce City (about 6 percent of it, in its southwest part). On the ground, one National Weather Service hail report came from inside the Commerce City city limits: 0.75 inches (reported).

Radar estimated hail to 1.00 inch over part of the Reunion area (ZIP 80022) (about 5 percent of it, in its southwest part). On the ground, one National Weather Service hail report came from inside the Reunion area (ZIP 80022): 0.75 inches (reported). That report was logged by the NWS under the locality name “2 SW Commerce City”. That report plots within 0.5 miles of the Reunion boundary (see the note below).

Radar estimated hail to 1.00 inch over part of Castle Rock (about 4 percent of it, in its northeast part). No ground observer reported from Castle Rock that day — reports come from where people happen to be, and their absence is not evidence that nothing fell.

Radar estimated hail to 1.00 inch over part of Thornton (about 3 percent of it, in its north part). No ground observer reported from Thornton that day — reports come from where people happen to be, and their absence is not evidence that nothing fell.

Radar estimated hail to 1.00 inch over part of Denver (about 3 percent of it, in its northeast part). No ground observer reported from Denver that day — reports come from where people happen to be, and their absence is not evidence that nothing fell.

Radar estimated hail to 1.00 inch over part of Parker (about 2 percent of it, in its south part). On the ground, one National Weather Service hail report came from inside the Parker city limits: 1.00 inch (reported).

On the ground, four National Weather Service hail reports came from inside the Wheat Ridge city limits, the largest 1.00 inch (measured). Five more reports naming Wheat Ridge (“3 W Wheat Ridge”, “1 NW Wheat Ridge”, “1 NE Wheat Ridge”, “1 NW Wheat Ridge”, “1 NE Wheat Ridge”) came from outside that boundary. Radar placed only the 0.50 inch band over part of Wheat Ridge (about 64 percent of it, in its northwest part), an estimate below the size reported on the ground.

On the ground, one National Weather Service hail report came from inside the Fairmount city limits: 1.25 inches (reported). That report was logged by the NWS under the locality name “3 W Wheat Ridge”. That report plots within 0.5 miles of the Fairmount boundary (see the note below). Radar placed only the 0.50 inch band over part of Fairmount (about 47 percent of it, in its east part), an estimate below the size reported on the ground.

On the ground, six National Weather Service hail reports came from inside the Arvada city limits, the largest 1.50 inches (measured). Five of them were logged by the NWS under the locality names “1 NW Wheat Ridge”, “1 NE Wheat Ridge” and “2 N Mountain View”. Four of them (“1 NW Wheat Ridge”, “1 NE Wheat Ridge”, “1 NW Wheat Ridge” and “1 NE Wheat Ridge”) plot within 0.5 miles of the Arvada boundary (see the note below). Radar placed only the 0.50 inch band over part of Arvada (about 41 percent of it, in its southeast part), an estimate below the size reported on the ground.

On the ground, one National Weather Service hail report came from inside the Evergreen city limits: 1.75 inches (reported). That report was logged by the NWS under the locality name “Wah Keeney Park”. That report plots within 0.5 miles of the Evergreen boundary (see the note below). Radar placed only the 0.50 inch band over part of Evergreen (about 10 percent of it, in its north part), an estimate below the size reported on the ground.

On the ground, four National Weather Service hail reports came from inside the Golden city limits, the largest 1.75 inches (reported). One more report naming Golden (“1 WSW Golden”) came from outside that boundary. Radar placed only the 0.50 inch band over part of Golden (about 5 percent of it, in its northeast part), an estimate below the size reported on the ground.

On the ground, two National Weather Service hail reports came from inside the Westminster city limits, the largest 0.75 inches (reported). One of them was logged by the NWS under the locality name “3 SW Federal Heights”. One of them (“3 SW Federal Heights”) plots within 0.5 miles of the Westminster boundary (see the note below). Radar placed only the 0.50 inch band over part of Westminster (about 4 percent of it, in its southwest part), an estimate below the size reported on the ground.

On the ground, one National Weather Service hail report came from inside the Brush city limits: 0.75 inches (reported). Radar placed only the 0.50 inch band over part of Brush (less than 1 percent of it, in its northwest part), an estimate below the size reported on the ground.

On the ground, one National Weather Service hail report came from inside the Lakewood city limits: 1.00 inch (reported). Radar placed only the 0.50 inch band over part of Lakewood (less than 1 percent of it, in its northeast part), an estimate below the size reported on the ground.

On the ground, one National Weather Service hail report came from inside the Fort Lupton city limits: 1.25 inches (reported). Radar placed no estimated hail band of any size over Fort Lupton. A ground report is an observation; radar output is an estimate, and the two routinely disagree.

The strongest radar-estimated core of this storm, the 2.00 inch band, crossed no Red Hawk service-area city. It sits over unincorporated Elbert County, ZIP code 80117, about 8.1 miles east of the Elizabeth city limit. Named roads under it: County Road 154, Long View Circle, Ruby Circle and Olsen Drive (roads inside the surrounding 1.75 inch band). The nearest ground report was 9.8 miles away (“5 NE Ponderosa Park”, 1.00 inch). No ground observer reported from inside it — reports come from where people happen to be, and their absence is not evidence that nothing fell.

Where a report is marked above, its point plots within 0.5 miles of the city line it was placed across. An NWS report position is not surveyed: it is quoted to two decimal places and is derived from a whole-mile distance on a 16-point compass, so a point that close to a line cannot be resolved to one side of it. Those reports are still listed, because they are the National Weather Service record; only the city they are credited to is left open. City boundaries are the U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2025 place limits; Denver neighborhoods use the City and County of Denver’s statistical neighborhood polygons. A city is listed if any NWS ground report came from inside that boundary, or if a 1.00 inch or larger radar band crosses it; a ground report is never left off for the size of the radar estimate. Entries marked ZIP area have no legal boundary of their own and are matched on the Census ZIP Code Tabulation Area, which is approximate and is never a city limit. The 0.50 inch band also crossed 21 other service-area cities with no ground report inside them; those are not listed because hail under one inch rarely damages asphalt shingles and a radar band that small is an estimate below that threshold. A band at or above 1.00 inch also clipped the edge of 2 further service-area cities without a ground report inside them, by less than one radar grid cell of area. Those are not listed: MRMS is gridded at about one kilometre and the swath it draws is displaced from where the stones landed, so an overlap that small does not establish that hail fell in the city.

Hail duration, warnings and wind

The same system produced 14 Colorado wind reports that day, the strongest 73 mph at 3 WSW Julesburg. Wind damage and hail damage look different on a roof and are assessed separately.

CoCoRaHS volunteer observers logged 11 Colorado hail observations on this date, the longest running 20 minutes at Castle Pines 2.8 ENE. That network records how long hail fell and what it damaged, which NWS storm reports do not capture.

Frequently asked questions

Red Hawk tracks every hail day across the Front Range. See our other storm reports for the rest of the 2026 season.

City-by-city reports and hail histories

• Wheat Ridge hail storm report, June 8, 2026
• Wheat Ridge roofing & hail history
• Golden hail storm report, June 8, 2026
• Golden roofing & hail history
• The Pinery hail storm report, June 8, 2026
• The Pinery roofing & hail history

Not sure what to look for? Start with what hail damage looks like on a roof and the Colorado hail claim guide.

Storm figures are National Weather Service Local Storm Reports for Colorado on June 8, 2026, retrieved from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive and de-duplicated. Radar swath analysis by ExoVzn, an independent forensic meteorology firm, using NOAA MRMS data. Impact-energy and damage-threshold figures are from published hail impact research. Storm reports indicate where hail occurred; only a physical inspection establishes whether a specific roof was damaged.