Monsoon Storm Dumps Hail On Colorado's Grand Mesa, Making It Look Like Mid-Winter

DENVER (CBS4) - Western Colorado received some much needed precipitation from the North American Monsoon on Wednesday and some of it fell in the form of ice. Late afternoon thunderstorms dropped enough hail on the Grand Mesa to make it look more like a winter wonderland.

The images below from CDOT show the scene at over 10,000 feet late Wednesday. Some areas received as much as an inch of rain from the slow-moving thunderstorms.

Western Colorado has been in the middle of an extreme to exceptional drought for well over a year with area weather stations running large precipitation deficits. But the past few weeks have brought decent amounts of rain to some of the area.

The latest update from the U.S. Drought Monitor showed a few areas of improvement on the Western Slope of Colorado. More monsoon showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast through the upcoming weekend.