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The hailstorm that pounded west metro Denver with golf ball- and baseball-sized stones on May 8 will rank聽as the most expensive catastrophe in state history, according to estimates Tuesday from the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.

The insurance industry trade group estimates that more than 150,000 auto insurance claims and more than 50,000 homeowners insurance claims will be filed, resulting in聽$1.4 billion in insured losses.

“It isn’t an exact science, and we try to be conservative,” said聽Carole Walker, executive director of the trade group. “The cost of claims will likely go up.”

At $1.4 billion, the storm will surpass the $1.1 billion in damage claims, adjusted for inflation, that a storm on July 11, 1990, generated and the $845.5 million in claims tied to a storm on July 20, 2009.

It will also be three times more expensive聽than the state’s most damaging wildfire, which destroyed 346 homes in the Waldo Canyon area of Colorado Springs in June 2012 and generated $453.7 million in payouts at the time.

“The enormous size of the hail hitting densely populated areas of the Denver metro (area) during rush hour has contributed to the magnitude of damage caused by this storm,”聽Walker said.

Golden, north Lakewood, Wheat Ridge and northwest Denver suffered the hardest hits, with damage also reported in Commerce City, insurers said.

One factor that sets the聽May 8 storm apart from earlier ones is that it is on track to generate more auto claims ($710 million) than home claims ($704 million).

“It is a high number of auto claims as opposed to home,” said Walker.

Farmers Insurance Group has seen about 60 percent of damage claims come in on the auto side and 40 percent on the home side, said Carrie Bonney, a spokeswoman for the insurer. Normally, the split is in the other direction.

Part of that reflects the storm’s timing. Cars were out in the open at workplace parking lots or on roads during early rush-hour traffic.

Also, Angela Thorpe, a spokeswoman with State Farm, said the path of the storm took it through areas with a heavy concentration of multifamily housing, where fewer carports and garages are available to shelter vehicles from the elements.

The storm also carried a big punch, with stones so large in some areas that they didn’t just dent hoods and roofs, but shattered and punched through windshields.

About half of the cars reporting damage aren’t drivable, Walker said. That requires providing replacement vehicles, adding to claim costs.

Late-model cars increasingly come with expensive exterior sensors and complicated windshields that are much more difficult and costly to repair compared with the last big wave of hailstorms in 2009.

“With the improvement in the economy, people are purchasing newer, higher-value vehicles, which can increase loss severity,”聽Thorpe said.

Walker said that the sensors help prevent individual accidents, but they drive up the costs of repairs when damaged.

While autos were hit hard,聽area roofs held up comparatively well, which could reflect all the replacements that resulted from聽past storms.

Walker said many wood-shake roofs, which don’t fare well in hail, have been聽replaced with impact-resistant shingles, which stand up better to hail. Also, newer shingles are more durable than old ones.

Commercial properties weren’t included in the $1.4 billion estimate from the insurance association. Getting claim estimates on聽business properties is harder, given a聽greater variety of insurance providers and the popularity of self-insurance.

But damages are looking large on that side as well. The Colorado Mills mall, in northwest Lakewood, suffered so much damage that . And surrounding new-car dealerships, with their inventory out in the open, took a heavy hit.