Burlington, CO Hail Storm – September 2025

What Happened

A severe hail storm moved through Burlington, CO on September 9, 2025, producing 2-inch hail during a long late-afternoon and evening sequence. Field reports placed quarter-sized hail in town by 4:03 PM MDT and showed larger stones developing as the storm persisted.

The first NWS alert came at 3:27 PM MDT with 1-inch hail. By 3:54 PM MDT, radar and spotter verification had lifted the estimate to 1.75 inches. A spotter later reported quarter to golf ball sized hail accumulating around 3:45 PM MDT, with hail still falling and building in depth. Another spotter report at 4:03 PM MDT described quarter-sized hail in town, followed by social media photos of hailstones at 4:11 PM MDT and a report at 4:12 PM MDT that hail had begun at 3:30 PM and was still ongoing.

The storm reached 2 inches in multiple NWS alerts through the evening. Alerts at 5:21 PM MDT, 6:12 PM MDT, and 7:07 PM MDT all carried 2-inch hail with radar and spotter verified confidence. Between those reports, dual-polarization radar continued to map hail sizes from 1.25 inches to 1.75 inches, showing a storm that kept producing hail through several cycles rather than a single brief burst.

A spotter-verified report at 6:47 PM MDT documented 2.5-inch hail, with the time estimated by radar. That report stands above the warning sequence and points to localized larger stones within the broader storm footprint. Later radar-derived alerts from 7:58 PM MDT through 11:05 PM MDT still showed hail from 1 inch to 1.5 inches, indicating the event remained active well into the night.

Damage Assessment

The field reports show a hail swath with repeated impacts in and around Burlington, not a short-lived burst limited to one neighborhood. Hail began around 3:30 PM and continued into the evening, with accumulation noted in the 4:12 PM MDT report that described quarter-sized hail building up to a few inches deep. That kind of depth can leave a clear surface record on exposed roofs, vehicles, and landscaping.

The spotter-verified 1.75-inch report at 3:45 PM MDT and the 2-inch radar and spotter alerts later in the day point to a storm capable of denting soft metals, cracking windshield glass, and stripping leaves from trees. The 2.5-inch spotter report at 6:47 PM MDT adds a larger isolated hail signal inside the broader event. Social media photos at 4:11 PM MDT support the presence of substantial stones at the surface.

This was a multi-pass hail event. That matters for inspection work because damage can show up in layers. Early stones may have scuffed paint and bruised siding. Later stones may have added fresh hits on the same roofs, gutters, vents, and window screens. Properties on the path of repeated alerts deserve close attention even where the largest stones were brief.

The warning area also remained active through the evening, with radar-derived hail sizes stepping down and back up between 1 inch and 1.75 inches. That pattern suggests scattered severe impacts across the storm path rather than a single uniform hail core.