Short answer: Yes — hail fell in the Centennial area on August 13, 2026. The National Weather Service's largest report was 1.75-inch golf-ball hail in Arapahoe Park at 4:25 PM, with hail over an inch in Foxfield and Centennial. No Douglas County hail report was logged that day.
Thursday afternoon, August 13, 2026, a storm parked over the southeast metro and dropped the largest hail the area has seen since early June. If you live in Centennial, Foxfield, Arapahoe Park or the Cottonwood area, you have probably already been handed a door-hanger about it.
We're a Parker-based roofing team, and this is the two weeks when every roofer in the metro tells every homeowner in the metro that the storm hit them. Here is the actual report record instead — including the parts that don't help us sell anything.
What Did the August 13 Storm Actually Do?
According to the National Weather Service's storm reports for that afternoon, the largest hail report was 1.75 inches — golf ball size — in Arapahoe Park at 4:25 p.m. Hail over an inch in diameter was also reported in Foxfield and in Centennial. Local coverage of the same storm described hail drifts up to three feet deep and leaves stripped from trees in the hardest-hit pockets.
Additional storm reports were logged in the same Arapahoe County corridor two days later, on Saturday, August 15. We're not putting a size on that second round here, because we haven't re-verified those individual reports ourselves.
Did Hail Hit Parker or Douglas County on August 13?
Not according to the report record. Every hail report from August 13 through August 15 inside a 10-mile radius of Parker sits in Arapahoe County — Foxfield, Arapahoe Park, Cottonwood, Centennial. No hail report was logged in Douglas County on those dates at all.
There is a wrinkle worth knowing about, because it is the thing most likely to be misquoted at your front door. On Saturday, August 15, the National Weather Service issued a special weather statement that named Parker, Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Castle Pines, The Pinery and Franktown. That statement forecast the possibility of half-inch hail and 50 mph gusts. A statement like that describes what a storm could do on its current track — it is not an observation that hail fell on those towns. Being named in a warning is not the same as being hit.
If someone shows you a map with your Douglas County street inside a colored blob for August 13, ask them which report it's based on. The most recent verified hail report near Parker is still from earlier in the summer.
Does a Nearby Hail Report Mean Your Roof Is Damaged?
No. A hail report is a single observation: someone reported ice of a certain size at a certain place and time. Colorado storms are hyper-local — two streets in the same neighborhood can come out completely differently, and a report three miles away is context, not a verdict on your shingles.
The honest answer, more often than people expect, is that the roof is fine. We say that out loud on inspections, and we've written about how to read storm reports without panicking and what hail damage actually looks like from the ground.
What Should Centennial and Aurora Homeowners Do Now?
- Write down the date and rough time you heard hail. That detail matters later far more than people expect.
- Look from the ground: dented gutters, downspouts, metal roof vents, AC fins, and granules washed into the downspout splash blocks. Don't get on the roof.
- Photograph anything you find, with something in frame for scale.
- Get a roof-level inspection from someone who will put in writing that the roof is undamaged if it is.
- Don't sign anything at the door under time pressure — read how to vet a roofer and spot a storm chaser first.
If there is damage, the next question is usually whether it's a repair or a replacement. We walk through how that call gets made in repair vs. replace after Colorado hail.
How Do You Tell a Local Roofer From a Storm Chaser?
The short version: a storm-chasing crew shows up within days of a hail event, works out of a rental truck, and is gone before the first winter. A local company was already here before the storm and will be here when a flashing detail leaks in three years.
Upstream Roofers works out of Parker and serves Centennial, Aurora, Lone Tree, Greenwood Village and the rest of the south metro. Our project managers and crews are the same people on every job in this area.
Where the Long-Term Hail Record Lives
One afternoon of reports is not a pattern. Our Storm Almanac publishes the full NOAA hail record, county by county, for every community we serve — so you can see how often hail actually hits your county and how big it typically gets. Note that NOAA's national database publishes on a multi-month lag, so this August storm won't appear there for a while.
Want the data first? Open the Storm Almanac. Want someone on the roof? Book a free, no-pressure inspection — and if the roof is fine, we'll tell you that.