Scientists: Hail could vanish from Front Range by 2070

Hail - and the damage that comes with it - could be gone from Colorado's Front Range by 2070, say Boulder scientists.

Not having hail to deal with would be a boon to gardeners and farmers. But a shift from hail to rain can also mean more runoff and a greater risk of flash flooding, says Kelly Mahoney, a research scientist at Colorado Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

"In this region of elevated terrain, hail may lessen the risk of flooding because it takes awhile to melt," Mahoney said. "Decision makers may not want to count on that in the future."

The hail study was conducted by CIRES and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

For the study, published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change, Mahoney and her colleagues used "downscaling" techniques to try to understand how climate change might affect hail-producing weather patterns across Colorado.

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