Category Archives: Thornton Weather

Thornton Weather

A snowy and slick commute for Thursday

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The scene at ThorntonWeather.com at 5:50am today. Click the image for a current weather webcam view.
The scene at ThorntonWeather.com at 5:50am today. Click the image for a current weather webcam view.

The snow arrived overnight and as of 5:00am ThorntonWeather.com had measured 1.3” and it was still coming down pretty good.  Due to the extreme cold – 17 degrees and a windchill of 5 degrees as of this writing – the roads are quite slick.  This morning we found residential streets to be the worst of course but main arterials like 120th Ave were not in too good of shape either.  Please allow plenty of time to get the kids to school and yourselves to work, allow plenty of distance between you and other cars and just take your time. 

A surge of cold air from the north is expected to intensify the snowfall in the coming hours and a bit of upslope will keep the flakes falling for most of the day.  Accumulations though won’t be all that great – look for 2 to 4 inches overall.  Snow will taper off this evening from the north to the south and completely end in the metro area around midnight.

Friday and this weekend are shaping up great but that could be short lived.  We are watching a cold front coming from Montana that could bring more cold and snow toward the first part of next week.

Colorado Weather, Thornton Weather

Snow finally comes to the Front Range

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An early morning image from the ThorntonWeather.com east webcam. Click for larger view.
An early morning image from the ThorntonWeather.com east webcam. Click for larger view.

With only two days to go in the month, things were pretty bleak and we were dangerously close to joining the “top 10” for the least snowiest Novembers in Denver.  That changed in pretty short order last night.  Forecasters were expecting about an inch of snow but the local storm reports indicate most areas exceeded that handily. 

Here in Thornton we started with a touch of rain in the evening which changed to snow as time went on and the temperature dropped.  In the end we recorded 4.1″ of the white stuff, most of which fell between 10:00pm and midnight. 

The National Weather Service in Denver is officially showing 2.4″ of snow at the old Stapleton International Airport site.  At Denver International Airport they recorded 1.6″. 

Some of the other snow reports that have come in (Updated @ 11:15am):

  • Arvada – 2.4″
  • Brighton – 1.5″
  • Conifer – 2.5″
  • Denver (north) – 1.5″
  • Denver (Stapleton) – 3.2″
  • Denver (DIA) – 1.7″
  • Elizabeth – 3.2″
  • Evergreen – 3.2″
  • Erie – 4.5″
  • Highlands Ranch – 3.0″
  • Henderson – 3.0″
  • Highlands Ranch – 4.5″
  • Lakewood – 3.8″
  • Lone Tree – 3.2″
  • Parker – 1.8″
  • Thornton – 4.1″
  • Westminster – 2.2″

For other totals, please see our local storm reports page.

Climatology, Thornton Weather

December weather preview – What to expect

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December weather preview - what can we expect in Denver?
December weather preview - what can we expect in Denver?

December brings with it the official start to winter and at the same time we find ourselves hoping we get moisture in the near future. As of this writing, the mountain snowpack in all basins are well below normal, with some as low as 27% of normal. Here in town our our annual snowfall is well below normal as well. In Colorado the snow season starts on July 1st and between that date and November 30th, Denver averages 16.9 inches of snow. Thus far, ThorntonWeather.com has measured a meager 0.2 inch and the official total for Denver taken at the site of the old Stapleton International Aiport stands at 0.8 inch!

So what can we expect in the coming month?  Click here to read our December 2008 climate and weather preview to find out!

Local News, Thornton Weather

City of Thornton launches Thornton Connected

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For those that may not have noticed it in the most recent issue of Inside Thornton, the city has launched a new service called Thornton Connected.  This new website and system allows area residents access to all sorts of new information from the city.  First is a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the website that covers the entire breadth of city services.  That same information is also available by phone.  Second is an email subscription service that allows area residents to receive periodic emails from the city on a range of topics from just about every city department. 

We have subscribed to many of the email newsletters and have them to be very informative.  The city is also doing a great job of ensuring the number of messages isn’t overwhelming and is only sending out the important stuff.  We commend the City of Thornton on this new service for residents! 

At the current time the system is only for non-emergency messages.  We do wish and hope the city will consider expanding the system to include emergency messages such as tornado warnings, Amber Alerts and other emergency alerts.  The city does not have an emergency siren system or any other way to disseminate emergency information to residents and we believe this would be a valuable and potentially life saving service.  A number of municipalities across the country and in Colorado have implemented such systems.  We are going to talk to the city about this and will update you when we learn more about their plans. 

You can learn more about Thornton Connected on the city’s website or by going directly to http://connected.cityofthornton.net.  As we mentioned, the winter issue of Inside Thornton also has information on the service.  You can download the issue by clicking here – page 10 and 11 have the Thornton Connected information.

Colorado Weather, Thornton Weather

Winter weather preparedness articles added to Weather Education

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Please view the Winter Weather Preparedness series to ensure you are ready for the winter!
Please view the Winter Weather Preparedness series to ensure you are ready for the winter!

We recently published a series of articles from the National Weather Service as part of Colorado’s Winter Weather Preparedness Week.  We have now made those stories easier to find by adding them to the Weather Education menu on the left of every page. 

This series of articles is a ‘must read’ for anyone living or traveling in Colorado or any place else that receives severe winter weather.  Covering a wide range of related topics, these articles help ensure you are ready for the coming winter.  The articles cover the following topics:

 

Part 1 Winter travel safety
Part 2 Watches…warnings…and advisories
Part 3 High winds
Part 4 Wind chill temperatures and hypothermia
Part 5  Avalanche safety
Review  Winter Weather Preparedness Week review
Thornton Weather

This week in Denver weather history – November 1 to November 8

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This week in Denver weather history - November 1 to November 8
This week in Denver weather history - November 1 to November 8

Lots of snow and lots of wind are the common theme when looking back at this week in Denver weather history.  Certainly fall always brings the wind and November is our second snowiest month and the history books definitely seem to back that up.

1-2   IN 1892…SNOWFALL TOTALED 5.0 INCHES IN DOWNTOWN DENVER.
        THIS WAS THE ONLY SNOW OF THE MONTH.
      IN 1956…HEAVY SNOWFALL TOTALED 7.0 INCHES AT STAPLETON
        AIRPORT.  THE STORM WAS ACCOMPANIED BY MUCH BLOWING AND
        DRIFTING SNOW.  NORTH WINDS GUSTED TO 47 MPH.
      IN 1991…THE STORM SYSTEM WHICH HIT THE FRONT RANGE AT THE
        END OF OCTOBER FINISHED THE JOB DURING THE START OF
        NOVEMBER.  SIX INCHES OF NEW SNOW WERE RECORDED AT BOTH
        ROLLINSVILLE AND MORRISON…WHILE 2.9 INCHES OF SNOW
        FELL AT STAPLETON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT WHERE NORTHEAST
        WINDS GUSTED TO 17 MPH.  THE TEMPERATURE CLIMBED TO A
        HIGH OF ONLY 19 DEGREES ON THE 2ND…SETTING A RECORD
        LOW MAXIMUM FOR THE DATE.
Continue reading This week in Denver weather history – November 1 to November 8 →

Thornton Weather

ThorntonWeather.com sneak peek – Storm Chasers episode 3 preview

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The three stars from Storm Chasers: Sean Casey - TIV Chief and Champion Storm Chaser, Dr. Josh Wurman - Research Meteorologist, and Reed Timmer - TVN Lead Storm Chaser, Meteorologist

A little birdie with the Discovery Channel popped in with a surprise for me and for ThorntonWeather.com readers – a sneak peek at this coming Sunday’s episode of Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers! 

For those that haven’t seen the show, it is must see TV, even if you aren’t much into weather.  The show chronicles a team of storm chasers as they crisscross the Great Plains hunting tornadoes.  They have an array of high tech gagetry at hand to help them in their chase to further our understanding of the storms including the TIV – Tornado Intercept Vehicle.  The TIV’s primary function?  To drive into a tornado! 

The third episode’s summary says:

Storm Chasers
Mutiny on the Plains
Sunday, Nov 02 at 10:00 pm E/P on Discovery Channel
Tensions mount between Sean and Josh, as Reed offers to chase with the TIV. Reed chases a risky nighttime tornado into the hills of Arkansas, while Sean and Josh return to Greensburg, Kansas one year after a twister nearly wiped the town off the map.

Without further ado, ThorntonWeather.com’s sneak peak of the episode.  In this scene small pieces of debris fall from the sky after meteorologists Danny and Aaron track down a funnel cloud in Rock Valley, Iowa.

Climatology, Thornton Weather

Snow on Halloween more fact than fiction

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Snow on Halloween? Popular belief is that we seem to have a lot of snow when the trick or treaters are out on the street.
Snow on Halloween? Popular belief is that we seem to have a lot of snow when the trick or treaters are out on the street.

Conventional wisdom in the Denver area is that it always seems to rain or snow on Halloween.   I know as a kid it seemed like Mother Nature always put a damper on our trick or treating. 

But, is there any truth to this urban legend?  Or is this just one of those times where our memory doesn’t serve us quite right? 

This year it certainly looks like we have nothing to worry about but  the National Weather Service has been kind enough to compile weather statistics just for Halloween.  As it turns out, the thought of snow and rain on Octboer 31st isn’t just in our minds! 

Click here to read all about Halloween and Denver’s historical chances of snow.

Climatology, Colorado Weather, Thornton Weather

November 2008 weather preview posted

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A Preview of Denver's November Weather - Will it be a Fall Month or a Winter Month?
A Preview of Denver's November Weather - Will it be a Fall Month or a Winter Month?

A preview of Denver’s November weather – Will it be a fall month or a winter month?  Typically November is a quiet weather month with plenty of nice, fall days but it can also turn wet with plenty of snow and moisture.  Just like Forest Gump’s proverbial box of chocolates, you never quite know what you are going to get.

Looking into the weather history books, we see that November is actually Denver’s second snowiest month, second only to March (April is third).  Historically we average 10.7 inches of snow during the month.

Click here to read our complete November preview and see what to expect for the month.

Climatology, Colorado Weather, Severe Weather, Thornton Weather, Weather Education

ThorntonWeather.com junior stormchaser chases tornado for 7News

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ThorntonWeather.com junior stormchaser Bobby pursued a tornado in Weld County yesterday and provided live reports for 7News.  Watch the video below (you may need to turn up the sound due to a lot of background noise).

[hana-flv-player video=’https://www.thorntonweather.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/7news.flv’ /]

The DOW - Doppler On Wheels - as seen on Storm Chasers.
The DOW - Doppler On Wheels - as seen on Storm Chasers.

🙂  Okay, so maybe not but it still is kind of fun.  This was taken yesterday at NCAR’s Super Science Saturday in Boulder.  Channel 7 was there with their “24 / 7 Weather Experience” which was a lot of fun as it gives folks a small taste of what goes into a weather broadcast.  Unfortunately Mike Nelson, author of our favorite weather book, wasn’t there when we were but this was probably the highlight of the day up at NCAR for the kids.

There was also a bit of a celebrity there too as Justin Walker from Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers TV show was there with their Doppler On Wheels (DOW) truck – a mobile radar vehicle.  Justin serves as one of the team members from the Center for Severe Weather Research that chases the storms.  He in particular is tasked with placing scientific probes in the path of the tornadoes.  We got to spend a good bit of time chatting with Justin about their chases this past tornado season and in particular the ones in the north central Kansas area where a good bit of my family lives.  He had some fascinating anecdotes to share about the storms, in particular the one that struck near Glen Elder, KS.

Bobby with Justin Walker of Storm Chasers.
Bobby with Justin Walker of Storm Chasers.

For those that didn’t make it up there, you really missed a great opportunity for kids to learn more about not only the weather but also things like energy, the environment and more.