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Several Feet of Hail Falls in Colorado in Only 15 Minutes

Hail piled up like snow on Tuesday after several feet fell in only 15 minutes around Cascade, Colorado, a video shows.
The hail occurred during a series of thunderstorms for which the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Pueblo, Colorado, issued a slew of warnings. Included in the warnings was the alert that hail, ranging from penny- to ping pong ball-size, depending on the location, could accompany the storms.
The hail even produced “hail fog,” an unusual phenomenon that occurs when excessive hail cools the surface temperature to the dew point level, forcing condensation.
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AccuWeather shared footage of the hail in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Have you ever heard of ‘hail fog’ before? It happened in Colorado on Tuesday!” AccuWeather posted with the video.
Text included in the video described the hail as piling up “like snow.”
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“Several feet of hail fell in just 15 minutes, west of Colorado Springs on Tuesday night,” the video said. “The storm even created hail fog, which is an unusual type of fog that happens after a heavy hailstorm.
“Hail fog forms as the air just above a thick blanket of fresh hail cools down to the dew point temperature.”
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Although hail fog might be considered unusual, hail itself is quite common in Colorado.
“Hail is the most frequent severe weather type in the state,” NWS meteorologist Cameron Simcoe told Newsweek, adding that hail is less common at the end of summer than it is in May and June. “But it is still relatively common during the summer, even up there in higher terrain.”
However, NWS doesn’t track hail depth, and Simcoe said there isn’t a statistic to compare to the “feet of hail” that fell on Tuesday.
“It is something that does happen,” he said. “If a storm produces a lot of hail, it can accumulate relatively quickly. We don’t normally measure hail amounts, so there’s nothing to quantify.”
The Pueblo, Colorado, forecast area could see more severe weather on Wednesday, and Simcoe warned that although hail is possible, the biggest threat will be strong wind.
The NWS Pueblo office shared the forecast in a post on X on Wednesday morning.
“Another round of thunderstorms will move across southern CO today,” the post said. “Heavy rainfall capable of producing localized flash flooding will be the primary risk. However large hail and damaging winds will also be possible as they move into the southeast plains.”
Winds up to 60 mph are expected, and hailstone sizes could reach an inch or larger.

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