Arriba, CO Hail Storm – August 2025

Arriba, CO saw a concluded hail storm on 2025-08-24 with verified hail up to 1.75 inches.

What Happened

The storm moved across the Arriba area in the afternoon and continued into early evening. StormSnipe mapped eight NWS alerts tied to the event between 2:05 PM MDT and 5:08 PM MDT.

The first alert at 2:05 PM MDT carried 1.75-inch hail with radar and spotter-verified confidence. A second alert at 2:15 PM MDT also carried 1.75-inch hail, but with NWS warning-only confidence. Another radar and spotter-verified alert followed at 2:29 PM MDT.

From 2:51 PM MDT through 3:16 PM MDT, four more alerts supported the same 1.75-inch hail size with dual-polarization radar confidence. A later alert at 5:08 PM MDT dropped to 1.5-inch hail with the same radar-based confidence. The alert sequence shows a long-lived hail-producing storm with multiple detection passes across the warning area.

The storm has concluded. No additional alerts are tied to this event after 5:08 PM MDT.

Damage Assessment

Hail near 1.75 inches can mark up roof surfaces, dent gutters, and leave visible impact on soft metal trim, vents, and outdoor equipment. It can also break windshield glass in exposed vehicles and damage field metal, siding, and skylight covers.

In a multi-zone hail event like this one, the heaviest impacts often align with the strongest radar detections and the earliest verified reports. Properties in the warning area should be checked for roof slope hits, granule loss, fractured seals, and fresh dents on north- and west-facing exposures. Smaller structures, outbuildings, and agricultural equipment can show damage even where roof failure is not present.

Inspection crews should document roof planes separately. Steeper slopes can show different impact patterns than low-slope sections. Downspouts, box vents, and ridge caps often show the first visible marks. Vehicles parked outdoors during the mid-afternoon window may show concentrated hail damage on horizontal surfaces.

What Contractors Should Know

This event produced repeated 1.75-inch hail detections across the afternoon, then a 1.5-inch detection later in the day. That spread suggests more than one hail core crossed the Arriba area. Contractors should treat the storm as a multi-pass inspection job, not a single-path cleanup.

Start with the properties closest to the strongest verified periods between 2:05 PM MDT and 3:16 PM MDT. Roof inspections should prioritize steep-slope shingles, ridge caps, flashing, vents, gutters, and any metal awnings. Crews should also check window screens, soft aluminum trim, and detached structures. If vehicles were outside, record roof, hood, and hood-edge impact patterns before any cleaning or tarp work begins.

For claim work, separate obvious hail strikes from older wear. Look for fresh bruising, cracked mat lines, and uniform impact fields on roof planes that face the storm path. On metal surfaces, count dents by panel and note depth variation. On shingle roofs, document loss of granules, soft spots, and torn edges near accessories and penetrations.