Tracking Colorado Deep Hail, The CHAT Project

news image
Special Stories
23 May 2018 3:34 AM
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, hail damage costs can range in the billions of dollars annually. For instance, several of the United States' 2017 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters involved severe storms and hail, including the devastating severe storms and hail events that impacted Colorado and the central United States during May 2017.     This makes it very important to track deep hail events and why the National Weather Service and the University of Colorado have partnered on the Colorado Hail Accumulations from Thunderstorms (CHAT) Project, a project that is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The CHAT Project is an effort to better understand and eventually forecast the thunderstorms that produce these events, and the CHAT Project needs the help of the public. The NWS and University of Colorado have developed a radar-based algorithm that can determine hail depth, and once deep hail is indicated with the algorithm, volunteers would be asked to go out and verify hail depths, along with taking pictures of the hail. Verification of the NWS/CU hail algorithm could potentially lead to better forecasting of the types of thunderstorms that produce deep hail events and potentially lead to better protections for society from financial losses due to hail. The project runs from May to September, 2018. If anyone is interested in volunteering for the project, contact Dr. Katja Friedrich at Katja.Friedrich@Colorado.edu. You can also learn more about the CHAT project at http://clouds.colorado.edu/deephail/. For WeatherNation, I am Meteorologist Marcus Walter.
All Weather News
More
Storms Picking on the High Plains

Storms Picking on the High Plains

CENTRAL U.S - A trough pushing in from the we

16 Sep 2025 6:15 PM
Eastern Pacific: Mario Returns, Sends Moisture to California

Eastern Pacific: Mario Returns, Sends Moisture to California

While the Atlantic has been relatively quiet

16 Sep 2025 6:10 PM
Coastal Low Spins Trouble Onshore

Coastal Low Spins Trouble Onshore

We've got a low-pressure system out over the

16 Sep 2025 6:10 PM
ATLANTIC: Another Wave Joins 92-L

ATLANTIC: Another Wave Joins 92-L

We are now a week after the climatological pe

16 Sep 2025 1:05 PM
Florida Rainfall: Nuisance or Beneficial?

Florida Rainfall: Nuisance or Beneficial?

The dry time has been a little hard to enjoy

16 Sep 2025 12:35 PM
Northern Lights Close Out the Weekend For Many

Northern Lights Close Out the Weekend For Many

Did you see them? Many might have had better

15 Sep 2025 10:30 PM
Fall Color Starting to Show In Parts of the Lower 48

Fall Color Starting to Show In Parts of the Lower 48

Grab the pumpkin spice and apple cider donuts

15 Sep 2025 1:10 AM