Category Archives: Thornton Weather

National Weather Service adds storm spotter training in the north Denver area

March 7, 2011 Thornton Weather Leave a comment

On June 3, 1981 a tornado struck Thornton in what is the worst twister to have struck the Denver metro area. Image courtesy the City of Thornton archives. — On June 3, 1981 a tornado struck Thornton in what is the worst twister to have struck the Denver metro area. Are you ready should disaster strike again? Image courtesy the City of Thornton archives.

Last month the National Weather Service announced the first batch of storm spotter training sessions for the spring but notably missing was any in the north metro area. That has now been rectified as two sessions at Front Range Community College were added for next week.

Severe weather is a fact of life in Colorado – from blizzards to tornadoes we can and do see it all. Each year the weather is responsible for claiming lives in our state and across the nation and the threat is very real. Storm spotter training allows you to learn how to protect yourself and your family while providing a public service.

Education is key to knowing how to protect you and your family. Whether you want to be an official storm spotter or maybe just want to learn more about severe weather, storm spotter training can provide you an incredible opportunity to learn.

The National Weather Service Denver / Boulder office has announced a series of storm spotter training dates for Colorado for the 2011 season.

The storm spotter program is a nationwide program with more than 280,000 trained spotters. These volunteers report weather hazards to their local National Weather Service office providing vital information when severe strikes. Data from spotters include severe wind, rain, snow measurements, thunderstorms and hail and of course tornadoes.

Looking back: A review of Denver’s 2009 “Summer of Storms” (Examiner.com)

Storm spotters are part of the ranks of citizens who form the Nation’s first line of defense against severe weather. There can be no finer reward than to know that their efforts have given communities the precious gift of time–seconds and minutes that can help save lives.

By completing one of these training classes you can become an official storm spotter. When severe weather strikes, you can report it by calling a special toll free number or submit your report via the National Weather Service’s website.

These are great sessions for anyone wanting to learn more about the severe weather we experience in Colorado, whether you want to be an official spotter or not. All training is free. Topics include:

Basics of thunderstorm development
Fundamentals of storm structure
Identifying potential severe weather features
Information to report
How to report information
Basic severe weather safety

To learn more about the program, see here: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/awebphp/spotter.php

Below are the dates, times and locations announced thus far with the first occurring today. At the current time only one is in the north metro area but more may be added. We will try to keep this updated but you can click here for any new dates on the National Weather Service website.

March, 2011 – Upcoming
Day	City, State	Time	Location
14	Castle Rock, CO (Douglas County)	6:30pm MDT	Black Feather Condominium Club House 403 Black Feather Loop Castle Rock, Colorado, 80104
	Contact Information: kc0mht@msn.com
15	Westminster, CO (Adams County)	3:30pm MDT	Front Range Community College 3645 West 112th Ave. room B1101…note room change. Westminster, CO 80031
	Contact Information: Rachel.Humphrey@Colorado.EDU
15	Centennial, CO (Arapahoe County)	6:30pm MDT	Arapahoe County Sheriff Dept. 13101 East Broncos Parkway Centennial, CO
	Contact Information: CStelter@co.arapahoe.co.us
15	Westminster, CO (Adms County)	7:00pm MDT	Front Range Community College 3645 West 112th Ave. room B1101…note room change. Westminster, CO 80031
	Contact Information: Rachel.Humphrey@Colorado.EDU
21	Sedgwick, CO (Sedgwick County)	6:30pm MDT	Sedgwick Fire Department on US 138 on east side of town
	Contact Information: sedgwickoem@yahoo.com
22	Holyoke, CO (Phillips County)	1:00pm MDT	Phillips County Fairgrounds Event Center Holyoke, CO
	Contact Information: philcoadmin@pctelcom.coop
22	Haxtun, CO (Phillips County)	6:30pm MDT	Haxtun Volunteer Fire Dept.
	Contact Information: Robert.glancy@noaa.gov
29	Akron, CO (Washington County)	6:30pm MDT	Washington County Events Center, Washington County Fairgrounds
	Contact Information: mmccaleb@co.washington.co.us
31	Greeley, CO (Weld County)	6:30pm MDT	Weld County Training center, 1104 H Street Greeley, co
	Contact Information: Rrudisill@co.weld.co.us

April, 2011 – Upcoming
Day	City, State	Time	Location
04	Sterling, CO (Logan County)	6:30pm MDT	Sterling Public Library 425 North 5th Street Sterling, CO
	Contact Information: OWENS@sterlingcolo.com
05	Fort Morgan, CO (Morgan County)	6:30pm MDT	note location change to: American Legion Hall 121 Nelson Road Fort Morgan, CO
	Contact Information: senfante@co.morgan.co.us
08	Denver, CO (Denver County)	6:30pm MDT	Metropolitan state college of denver Tivoli Union, Room 440
	Contact Information: Robert.Glancy@noaa.gov
09	Kiowa, CO (Elbert County)	9:00am MDT	Elbert County Public Health 75 Ute Avenue, Kiowa, CO
	Contact Information: cory.stark@elbertcounty-co.gov
12	Parker, CO (Douglas County)	7:00pm MDT	South Metro Fire Parkglenn HQ 10235 Parkglenn Way Room A & B Parker, CO
	Contact Information: p.lundquist@comcast.net
16	Commerce City, CO (Adams County)	10:00am MDT	Adams County OEM 4201 East 72nd Ave (2nd floor) Commerce City, CO 80022
	Contact Information: r1@rampartsar.com
20	Brush, CO (Morgan County)	6:30pm MDT	Brush Fire Department 1220 West Edison Brush, CO
	Contact Information: zach.evelyn@brushfd.com
26	Elizabeth, CO (Elbert County)	6:30pm MDT	Elizabeth Library 651 West Beverly Elizabeth, CO 80117
	Contact Information: cory.stark@elbertcounty-co.gov
30	Fort Collins, CO (Larimer County)	9:00am MDT	Fort Collins Police Community Room at 2221 South Timberline Road, Fort Collins
	Contact Information: n7dq@comcast.net

Climatology, Thornton Weather

Thornton’s February weather wrap – Cooler and drier than normal

March 5, 2011 Thornton Weather Leave a comment

Denver's February 2011 weather review February 2011 in the Mile High City was a relatively uneventful one. Temperatures were below normal and we received less snow and precipitation than what is typical for the month.

In terms of temperature, Denver officially recorded an average of 29.1 degrees during February as measured at Denver International Airport. While this is 4.1 degrees below normal, it was not cold enough to make ‘top 10’ status. Temperatures ranged from a high of 67 degrees on the 16th all the way down to a low of -17 on the 2nd. Neither of these was a record.

Here in Thornton we were slightly warmer with an average temperature of 29.6 degrees. We recorded a high of 69.3 degrees on the 16th and a low of -14.7 degrees on the 2nd.

One temperature record was set during the month and one tied. A new record low maximum was set on the 1st when the high temperature only climbed to -1 degrees. This broke the previous record of 2 degrees set in 1985. On the 8th the low maximum temperature of 8 degrees tied the mark last set in 1933.

In terms of snowfall, the month saw us record 5.3 inches – 1 inch below normal for February. This continued the trend for the snow season of below normal snowfalls and by the end of the month we were more than 20 inches below normal. Nearly half of that snow, 2.6 inches, fell during one storm on the 7th and 8th of the month. In all, only five days had snow and all of those were before the 9th of the month.

Precipitation was similarly below normal. A total of 0.42 inch was recorded which was 0.07 inch below the normal 0f 0.49 inch. Most of that was recorded during the same event that we received the biggest snow of the month mentioned above. Precipitation was recorded on five days with two of those recording 0.10 inch or more.

Thornton matched the Denver snowfall total of 5.3 inches. However we received much less precipitation from those snows and recorded only 0.29 inch of liquid moisture.

Below is the official Denver climate summary for February 2011. Click here to view Thornton’s February climate report.

CLIMATE REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOULDER, CO
830 PM MST TUE MAR 1 2011

...THE DENVER CO CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2011...

CLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD 1971 TO 2000
CLIMATE RECORD PERIOD 1872 TO 2011

WEATHER         OBSERVED          NORMAL  DEPART  LAST YEAR'S
                 VALUE   DATE(S)  VALUE   FROM    VALUE  DATE(S)
                                          NORMAL
................................................................
TEMPERATURE (F)
RECORD
 HIGH              77   02/28/2006
                        02/04/1890
 LOW              -25   02/01/1951
                        02/08/1936
HIGHEST            67   02/16        77     -10       52  02/27
LOWEST            -17   02/02       -25       8       -1  02/09
AVG. MAXIMUM     43.4              47.2    -3.8     39.7
AVG. MINIMUM     14.7              19.1    -4.4     18.5
MEAN             29.0              33.2    -4.2     29.1
DAYS MAX >= 90      0               0.0     0.0        0
DAYS MAX <= 32      7               4.3     2.7        8
DAYS MIN <= 32     25              26.0    -1.0       28
DAYS MIN <= 0       6               0.3     5.7        1

PRECIPITATION (INCHES)
 RECORD
  MAXIMUM         2.01   1934                                          
  MINIMUM         0.01   1970  
TOTALS           0.42              0.49   -0.07     0.30               
DAILY AVG.       0.01              0.02   -0.01     0.01               
DAYS >= .01         5               5.9    -0.9        9
DAYS >= .10         2                MM      MM        0
DAYS >= .50         0                MM      MM        0
DAYS >= 1.00        0                MM      MM        0
GREATEST
 24 HR. TOTAL    0.19   02/07 TO 02/08     0.10  02/07/10 TO 02/08/10

SNOWFALL (INCHES)
RECORDS
 TOTAL           22.1  1912
TOTALS            5.3               6.3     -1.0      5.8
SINCE 7/1        18.1              39.6    -21.5     46.0

DEGREE_DAYS
HEATING TOTAL     999               892     107      999
 SINCE 7/1       4151              4489    -338     4807
COOLING TOTAL       0                 0       0        0
 SINCE 1/1          0                 0       0        0              

FREEZE DATES
RECORD
 EARLIEST     09/08/1962
 LATEST       06/08/2007
EARLIEST                        10/07
LATEST                          05/05
.................................................................

WIND (MPH)
AVERAGE WIND SPEED              10.6                     7.6
RESULTANT WIND SPEED/DIRECTION   3/206                   MM
HIGHEST WIND SPEED/DIRECTION    38/250  DATE  02/20    25/360 2/18
HIGHEST GUST SPEED/DIRECTION    46/010  DATE  02/07    35/210 2/01

SKY COVER
POSSIBLE SUNSHINE (PERCENT)   MM    * SUNSHINE DATA DISCONTINUED 10/2009

NUMBER OF DAYS FAIR            6
NUMBER OF DAYS PC             19
NUMBER OF DAYS CLOUDY          3

AVERAGE RH (PERCENT)     52

WEATHER CONDITIONS. NUMBER OF DAYS WITH
THUNDERSTORM              0     MIXED PRECIP               0
HEAVY RAIN                0     RAIN                       0
LIGHT RAIN                0     FREEZING RAIN              0
LT FREEZING RAIN          0     HAIL                       0
HEAVY SNOW                1     SNOW                       4
LIGHT SNOW                5     SLEET                      0
FOG                      11     FOG W/VIS <= 1/4 MILE      5
HAZE                      5                                           

-  INDICATES NEGATIVE NUMBERS.
R  INDICATES RECORD WAS SET OR TIED.
MM INDICATES DATA IS MISSING.
T  INDICATES TRACE AMOUNT.

Climatology, Thornton Weather

Thornton’s March 2011 weather preview – Ch-ch-changes

March 1, 2011 Thornton Weather Leave a comment

Thornton's March weather preview Colorado’s weather is notoriously fickle capable of dispensing an entire gamut of weather in a very short period of time. The month of March typifies this as we can see everything from major snowstorms and bitter cold to summer-like temperatures and tornadoes.

These changes are due to Marches “in between” status – elements during the month have much in common with winter and spring. In addition to arctic fronts, Pacific storms frequently move across Colorado from the west and warm moist air streams up from the Gulf of Mexico northeastward into the state. When these cold fronts collide with the warmer air masses the result can be some crazy weather.

What kind of weather have we seen in March and what can we expect this year? Get the details in our complete March 2011 preview here.

Colorado Weather, National Weather, Thornton Weather

NASA satellite reveals January had fifth largest snow cover in past 45 years

February 26, 2011 Thornton Weather Leave a comment

NASA satellite imagery reveals that at one point in January 2011 the nation saw its fifth largest snow cover extent. Click the image for a larger view. (NASA)

How much snow has fallen this season in Colorado all depends on where you are. The high country has continued to see snowfall far in excess of normal while here on the Plains we remain mostly dry. For the nation, a new NASA satellite image reveals that 71 percent of it was covered in snow at one point last month.

The new image (right), taken by NASA’s Terra satellite using its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), reveals a snow covered contiguous United States in January.

The image uses false colors to show the snow extent and the length of time it was on the ground. White areas were completely covered with snow for most of the month whereas the pale green areas had snow for part of the month or were only partly snowy.

On January 12, 71 percent was covered in snow – the fifth largest amount of snow cover in the past 45 years. In fact, 49 of the 50 states had snow thanks to a significant winter storm that pummeled the Gulf Coast states with Florida being the only hold out.

Despite the expansive snow cover, the National Climatic Data Center said that January 2011 was the ninth-driest January in the United States since 1894. Further, while snow reached the Gulf Coast states, the southern half of the nation has been very dry with a large area from stretching Arizona to Virginia considered in various stages of drought.

Eastern Colorado is now seeing areas of moderate to severe drought as the lack of snowfall we have seen takes its toll. In Denver we have recorded only 18.1 inches of snow so far this season – 21.5 inches below what we would normally see through the end of February. Thornton has barely fared better recording 18.5 inches so far.

From Examiner.com:

Related:

Colorado Weather, Thornton Weather

Proposed National Weather Service budget cuts would impact Thornton residents

February 24, 2011 Thornton Weather 1 Comment

A proposed 30% cut in the National Weather Service's budget could lead to greater loss of life. (Examiner.com)

The National Weather Service is the nation’s frontline of defense against many forms of threats from Mother Nature. As the sole agency responsible for issuing weather related warnings and alerts, a proposed massive cut in the budget for the service could have dire consequences.

Colorado’s weather is as varied as any state in the union. Our true four seasons allow us to witness the entire gamut of weather from scorching hot summers to winters buried in feet of snow to springtime severe weather with damaging and deadly tornadoes. Knowing what is going on with the weather is critical in allowing us to protect ours and families’ lives.

Budget cuts being proposed in Washington DC could severely decrease the accuracy and frequency of weather related information we receive. A massive cut of $126 million to the National Weather Service’s budget is being proposed – a full 30% cut in funding for a service that provides information that saves lives every day.

When you view a detailed forecast on ThorntonWeather.com that is specifically for Thornton, you are viewing data provided by the National Weather Service. Our radar imagery, weather radio, the watches and warnings that we post – all originate from the National Weather Service.

Continue reading Proposed National Weather Service budget cuts would impact Thornton residents →

Thornton Weather

Weather Underground website revamp pushes it ahead of other weather sources

February 21, 2011 Thornton Weather 3 Comments

Weather Underground website screenshot — The redesigned Weather Underground website is a great source for weather information. (WeatherUnderground.com)

Certainly for truly local, Thornton weather, ThorntonWeather.com is the place to go. However you sometimes want a bigger picture or details on the weather for a different location and for that, a newly revamped Weather Underground website is the place to go.

We here at ThorntonWeather.com are big fans of the Weather Underground. The site has always provided much greater depth and detail with more features than local media outlets and even more than the ‘big names’ like the Weather Channel.

Further, Weather Underground brings in the data from thousands of personal weather stations (PWS) like ThorntonWeather.com’s and uses those to provide local conditions to visitors – not airports miles away. In return, Weather Underground allows PWS owners to use their data freely, something which we do on ThorntonWeather.com and truly appreciate the reciprocity.

Where does ThorntonWeather.com use Weather Underground data?

We recently wrote about the newly redesigned Weather Underground site on Examiner.com and thought ThorntonWeather.com readers would like to learn more and add this resource to their bookmarks. Continue reading Weather Underground website revamp pushes it ahead of other weather sources →

Colorado Weather, Thornton Weather

Satellite image shows a snow covered Colorado

February 10, 2011 Thornton Weather Leave a comment

February 10, 2011 - Satellite image of Colorado and surrounding states showing the extensive snow cover. Click the image for a larger version. (NASA)

The recent snowstorm covered not only Thornton but the vast majority of Colorado in a blanket of white. The latest satellite imagery from NASA shows the extent of the snow stretching across the state from border to border.

The satellite image, taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite on February 10th, shows the impressive snowfall received by the entire region. Not only is Colorado covered but the neighboring states of Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas are covered in snow as well.

Thornton received relatively little snowfall from the recent storm system but the temperatures were bitter cold. Denver set a record low maximum temperature for February 8th, the second time since the first of the year that mark was set.

Click on the image to the right to view a larger image.

Thornton Weather

Denver ties temperature record for February 8th

February 9, 2011 Thornton Weather Leave a comment

Record Cold Temperatures — Denver tied a 78 year old record temperature for February 8th.

We of course knew it was cold yesterday but now we know exactly how cold. At Denver International Airport the high temperature yesterday only climbed to 8 degrees. This ties the record low maximum for the date last set in 1933.

Highlighting that is the fact that the “high” temperature occurred soon after midnight at 12:28am. It was all downhill from there throughout the day as cold air settled in. Daytime highs in Denver were only around 6 degrees.

Here in Thornton we virtually matched the official Denver high as we climbed to 8.3 degrees. That occurred right at midnight.

Thornton Weather

So how cold did it get in Thornton? Cold enough to freeze boiling water instantly

February 2, 2011 Thornton Weather Leave a comment

ThorntonWeather.com tested the theory that boiling water turns to ice crystals when thrown into sub-zero air. It worked! Check out the video below. (ThorntonWeather.com)

To say it has been cold would be a major understatement. Yesterday Denver’s “high” temperature only reached -2 degrees and this morning DIA dropped to -17 degrees, one degree shy of the record low temperature for the date. We decided to have a little fun with the cold weather in our Thornton backyard yesterday.

One fun experiment to do when the temperatures is so cold is to demonstrate how boiling hot water instantly freezes when thrown in the air. We figured it would make a great story for our work on Examiner.com and thought we would share the results here.

Your intrepid local weather geek conducted the experiment at a time when the sun was partially shining but the temperature was a bone chilling 1.4 degrees below zero. For what it is worth, with a 9 mph wind that was generating a wind chill of 14 degrees below!

The experiment is conducted simply using a pot of boiling water. When the water is taken outside in zero degree or colder weather and thrown into the air, the water instantly freezes in a cloud of ice crystals.

It is interesting to note that if you do this with cold water, you simply end up dumping water everywhere – it doesn’t freeze! That of course begs the question, how does boiling hot water freeze faster than cold water?

This phenomenon actually has a name – the Mpemba effect – named after Erasto Mpemba, a student in Tanzania in the 1960s who studied it. While it is named after Mpemba, other luminaries including Aristotle spent time analyzing it.

Dr. Joe Larsen, a chemist at the Rockwell Science Center in Los Angeles, explains that the hot water breaks into tiny droplets when it is thrown because it is close to being steam. The heat from the small droplets freezes virtually instantly resulting in the ice crystal cloud.

This doesn’t happen with cold water because it is thicker and in a closer to solid state (or at least not as close to turning to evaporative gas as the boiling water is). As such, it doesn’t break up as easily and falls to the ground in blobs.

So, for those of you with kids at home because school is canceled, you can now put their time to good use by conducting a science experiment in the cold!

Thornton Weather

A very slight warm up for Thornton followed by more unsettled weather

February 2, 2011 Thornton Weather Leave a comment

Continued cold in Thornton and across northeastern Colorado. The weather will remain unsettled through at least the first part of next week. (ThorntonWeather.com)

The big freeze that sent the temperatures in the Mile High City plummeting far below zero is not over yet. Continued cold weather is expected on Wednesday and the overall pattern in the longer term will be unsettled.

Yesterday the temperature at Denver International Airport only reached a high of -2 degrees. This broke the previous record low maximum for the date and is the first time in 14 years that Denver’s high temperature was below zero. Click here for more details on that record.

Yet another record may fall today – that of the coldest temperature for this date. The record is -18 degrees set just four years ago in 2007. As of 6:00am the coldest it had gotten today at DIA was -17 degrees so it is a bit hit or miss as to whether or not we break the record.

Here in Thornton, as of this writing, the lowest temperature today has been -14.6 degrees. This is the coldest temperature recorded at ThorntonWeather.com since we came online in October 2006. The previous coldest temperature we recorded was -14.1 degrees on December 15, 2008.

How cold was it? Video shows it is cold enough to instantly freeze boiling water (Examiner.com)

For today we are going to continue to see below freezing temperatures as while we start a warm up, it won’t amount to much. Further, a Wind Chill Advisory remains in effect until 9:00am as breezy conditions will allow wind chill temperatures as low as -25 degrees.

The extended forecast for Thornton beginning Wednesday, February 2, 2011.

Skies will gradually clear today and there will be sun above but we will still only reach a high temperature of 8 degrees. Overnight lows tonight will drop to around zero degrees, perhaps even a bit lower given clear skies.

On Thursday we do finally expect to see temperatures climb above freezing but not by a lot. Highs will be around 36 degrees and a weak system gives us just the slightest chance to see a snow flurry although no accumulation is expected.

Friday will bring the warmest day of the week as temperatures climb to the mid 40s. That however will be short lived.

Another Arctic air mass is forecast to impact the weekend weather sending the mercury down and again bringing us a chance for snow. Mercifully this system is not going to be as cold as the one we are pulling out of today. Snow amounts again don’t look to be anything extraordinary but some models are pointing toward a more significant snow event. We will know more as it gets closer.

Weather, natural disasters & climate news and information.