June hailstorm wreaks havoc on southeast Weld

PROSPECT VALLEY – For wheat farmer Jerry Cooksey, the June 11 hailstorm that struck southeast Weld County was one for the history books.

“We had hail that was golf-ball and racquet-ball size,´ said Cooksey, who farms about 9,000 acres south of Roggen. “You seldom see a hailstorm with hail that large. I haven’t seen anything like that in a long, long time.”

Cooksey said the storm punched holes in his tractor and planting equipment as it rampaged across a miles-wide swath of winter wheat, corn, bean, sunflower and sugar beet fields between I-76 near Hudson nearly all the way to Wiggins.

Two weeks…