The snowpack in the mountains continues to add up and we are having a great year as far as that goes. The South Platte, which is crucial to many metro area water reserves including Thornton stands at 108% of normal.
| Colorado SNOTEL Snowpack Update Report | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Data based on the first reading of the day (typically 00:00) for Tuesday, February 12, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This past Tuesday saw over 40 tornadoes touch down across Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi. The death toll from these storms currently stands at 57 making it one of the 15 worst tornado death tolls since 1950, and the nation’s deadliest swarm of tornadoes since 76 people were killed in Pennsylvania and Ohio on May 31, 1985.
It is currently believed that because February tornadoes are not all that common, simple human nature may have been the root reason for so many fatalities. Simply put, people weren’t expecting them or believing the warnings that were issued well in advance. From USA Today:
“Because February tornadoes are relatively rare, many residents didn’t respond quickly to warnings from weather forecasters because they didn’t believe the threat was serious until a storm was upon them. In fact, February tornadoes are “almost an annual event,” Brooks said. In 2007, there were three killer tornadoes in February — two in Florida and one in Louisiana — that killed a total of 22 people. During the most common months for tornadoes — March, April, May and June — fatalities typically are 15% lower and injuries are 22% lower because people expect such storms and prepare for them, said Dan Sutter, an economist at the University of Texas Pan American who has studied tornadoes for eight years.”
This truly is a tragedy and one has to wonder how many of these deaths could have been avoided had residents simply heeded the warnings that were issued. For more information, please see:
USA Today – Cleanup continues after devastating tornadoes
The Tennessean – Nashville newspaper’s special section about the storms
Memphis radar image from February 5, 2008
Denver and Thornton wrapped on the first month of 2008 dry. Official measurements at Stapleton and at ThorntonWeather.com recorded only 0.08 inch of precipitation making it the 7th driest January since recordkeeping began in 1872. This was 0.43 inch below the 0.51 normal, so a pretty big drop. Only two days had measurable precipitation in the form of snow at Stapleton while in Thornton we recorded four.
Officially only 3.1 inches of snowfall was recorded near the former Stapleton International Airport and in Thornton we recorded a bit less at 2.8 inches. This was 4.6 inches below normal for Denver. Thornton’s seasonal snowfall stood at 26.4 inches at the end of the month (the official Denver measurement was 29.5 inches) which is below the official normal of 33.3 inches for this period. There were no precipitation records set or tied during the month.
In regards to temperature, the normal average for the month is 29.2 degrees which we finished slightly below at 27.9 (28.2 in Thornton). Illustrating the wide range of temperatures we experience in Colorado, we had a high temperature of 66 degrees on the 27th and a low of -1.7 on the 22nd (Denver recorded 63 and -3 on those days). All but one day of the month, the 4th, recorded low temperatures below freezing and five days had high temperatures that never got above freezing. While the month was below normal, it was still warmer than what it was just one year ago in 2007 when the average was 22.8 degrees!
Some other interesting statistics… We did have sunshine 79% of the possible time so it was pretty sunny at least. Wind is of course a fact of life on the plains and we did have 12 days with wind gusts registering over 25mph. On the 25th of the month we registered the highest gust of the month at 38mph.
For a day by day log, click here to view our climate log for January 2008.