Screen capture of video showing the aftermath of a tornado in Russia. (LiveLeak)
An amazing tornado video captured by a dash mounted camera was released on YouTube recently. Apparently taken in Russia on August 29, a surprised driver pulls out of his garage to discover a tornado ripping through the area.
The video begins with the driver backing out of the driveway in heavy rain. As the vehicle turns to face down the road, trees are being pummeled by strong winds and debris from other houses and nearby buildings flies through the air.
After sitting for a scant few seconds – likely struggling to comprehend Mother Nature’s fury that is erupting around him – the driver tries to go back to his garage. As he turns back, the garage collapses before his eyes.
Video added at the end shows extensive damage to cars and homes in the area.
It is believed the video is of an EF-3 rated twister that tore a 28 mile path through Kariyevo.
September snow in Denver? Possible and not at all unusual.
With a significant blast of cold air set to arrive this week, there is a chance for the Mile High City to see its first snowfall of the season. While such an event would be the first September snow of this millennium, it would hardly be unusual.
Looking back at Denver’s snowfall records dating to 1882, 45 Septembers have recorded a trace or more of snowfall. That means that out of 132 Septembers including this one, roughly one third of them have seen snow. Overall, the month averages 1.1 inches.
Of those 45 Septembers with snow, 17 were for only a trace. Twenty eight, or roughly 21 percent, had measurable snowfall of 0.1” or more.
Denver’s heaviest 24 hour September snowfall came between September 24 and 25 in 1936 when a hefty 15.0 inches fell to the ground. That snowfall contributed to 1936 taking its place as the second snowiest September on record.
For the entire month of September, some years saw rather significant totals. The top 10 September snowfall totals include:
17.2 inches in 1971
16.5 inches in 1936
12.9 inches in 1959
11.4 inches in 1895
8.7 inches in 1985
7.4 inches in 1995
6.5 inches in 1908
5.8 inches in 1961
5.5 inches in 1965
5.4 inches in 1993
The earliest snowfall on record occurred on September 3, 1961. On that date 4 inches of snowfall fell at the old Stapleton International Airport and the mercury dropped to a low of 33 degrees.
The last time Denver saw a September snow was on September 23, 2000 when 0.2 inches was recorded.
On average, we receive our first snow on October 19 so should snow fall, it will be well ahead of normal.
The cold that looks to come could very well bring an end to the growing season. The Mile High City’s first frost on average comes on September 20th followed by the average first freeze on October 7. Given that, a frost at the current time of the month is not that far off the mark. It does not appear at this moment we will see that first freeze – yet – but a frost is possible.
Following on a cooler and wetter than normal August, the month of September arrives and one can’t help but wonder if an early fall lies in wait as well. The month can bring our first snow of the season but more often than not, it is one of the most pleasant along the Colorado Front Range.
As temperatures start to drop, September usually reminds us that summer is at an end and fall is now here. Sunshine is predominant though as the month actually has the highest percentage of sun out of any month. Sunny days and clear, cool nights are the standard weather pattern for the month.
The month can bring extremes however. We will of course forever remember last year’s devastating floods brought on by record-setting rain. Longtime residents might remember September 1971 which brought over 17 inches of snowfall.
Periods of monsoonal moisture contributed to rain and clouds in August 2014. Coupled with the occasional cold front, the end result was a month that saw temperatures below normal and regular daily thunderstorms.
Thornton’s average temperature for the month came in at 68.2 degrees. This was more than four degrees cooler than Denver’s long term August average of 72.5 degrees. Out at Denver International Airport it was similarly cool with an average reading of 70.6 degrees.
Temperatures in Thornton ranged from a high of 94.4 degrees on the 17th down to a low of 47.6 degrees on the 30th. Only six days saw readings of 90 degrees or higher.
Denver’s warmest reading of 91 degrees occurred on the 17th and again on the 19th. Low readings of 52 degrees were seen on four days during the month. Four 90 degree days were recorded at DIA.
In terms of precipitation, Thornton measured 1.55 inches in the rain bucket over the course of the month. This was slightly below Denver’s August average of 1.69 inches.
The airport however fared better with 2.73 inches as many of the afternoon storms didn’t really get started until they were past Thornton.
Thornton, Colorado’s August 2014 Temperature Summary. (ThorntonWeather.com)Thornton, Colorado’s August 2014 Precipitation Summary. (ThorntonWeather.com)
CLIMATE REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOULDER, CO
136 PM MDT MON SEP 1 2014
...................................
...THE DENVER CO CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST 2014...
CLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD 1981 TO 2010
CLIMATE RECORD PERIOD 1872 TO 2014
WEATHER OBSERVED NORMAL DEPART LAST YEAR`S
VALUE DATE(S) VALUE FROM VALUE DATE(S)
NORMAL
................................................................
TEMPERATURE (F)
RECORD
HIGH 105 08/08/1878
LOW 40 08/26/1910
08/25/1910
08/24/1910
08/22/1904
HIGHEST 91 08/19 105 -14 99 08/20
08/17
LOWEST 52 08/31 40 12 52 08/09
08/30
08/25
08/24
AVG. MAXIMUM 83.8 87.2 -3.4 89.4
AVG. MINIMUM 57.4 57.9 -0.5 59.8
MEAN 70.6 72.5 -1.9 74.6
DAYS MAX >= 90 4 11.5 -7.5 16
DAYS MAX <= 32 0 0.0 0.0 0
DAYS MIN <= 32 0 0.0 0.0 0
DAYS MIN <= 0 0 0.0 0.0 0
PRECIPITATION (INCHES)
RECORD
MAXIMUM 5.85 1979
MINIMUM 0.02 1924
TOTALS 2.73 1.69 1.04 2.78
DAILY AVG. 0.09 0.05 0.04 0.09
DAYS >= .01 13 8.6 4.4 7
DAYS >= .10 5 4.3 0.7 2
DAYS >= .50 3 1.2 1.8 2
DAYS >= 1.00 0 0.3 -0.3 1
GREATEST
24 HR. TOTAL 1.45 08/25 TO 08/26
SNOWFALL (INCHES)
RECORDS
TOTAL 0.0
TOTALS 0.0 0.0
DEGREE_DAYS
HEATING TOTAL 2 10 -8 0
SINCE 7/1 7 16 -9 0
COOLING TOTAL 182 244 -62 308
SINCE 1/1 613 688 -75 866
FREEZE DATES
RECORD
EARLIEST 09/08/1962
LATEST 06/08/2007
EARLIEST 10/07
LATEST 05/05
..................................................
WIND (MPH)
AVERAGE WIND SPEED 8.9
RESULTANT WIND SPEED/DIRECTION 3/194
HIGHEST WIND SPEED/DIRECTION 48/320 DATE 08/25
HIGHEST GUST SPEED/DIRECTION 48/320 DATE 08/25
SKY COVER
POSSIBLE SUNSHINE (PERCENT) MM
AVERAGE SKY COVER 0.50
NUMBER OF DAYS FAIR 5
NUMBER OF DAYS PC 24
NUMBER OF DAYS CLOUDY 2
AVERAGE RH (PERCENT) 53
WEATHER CONDITIONS. NUMBER OF DAYS WITH
THUNDERSTORM 14 MIXED PRECIP 0
HEAVY RAIN 5 RAIN 4
LIGHT RAIN 17 FREEZING RAIN 0
LT FREEZING RAIN 0 HAIL 1
HEAVY SNOW 0 SNOW 0
LIGHT SNOW 0 SLEET 0
FOG 6 FOG W/VIS <= 1/4 MILE 0
HAZE 1
- INDICATES NEGATIVE NUMBERS.
R INDICATES RECORD WAS SET OR TIED.
MM INDICATES DATA IS MISSING.
T INDICATES TRACE AMOUNT.
August 7, 2014 – A butterfly enjoys blooming flowers in Thornton. (Bobby Hake)
August’s weather typically consists of warm daytime temperatures followed by afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Those storms provide excellent photo opportunities as do the various flora and fauna we see around this time of year.
Thornton’s spring and summer have been relatively wet allowing for a very lush, green landscape. Flowers are blooming and butterflies, bees and birds are all taking advantage of them. The near daily thunderstorms offer rain as well as lightning and sometimes hail. All make for prime photo subjects.
Slideshow updated August 31, 2014
To learn more about how to send your photo to us for inclusion in the slideshow, see below the slideshow.
Showcasing images captured by ThorntonWeather.com readers as well as some of our own, our monthly slideshow covers the entire gamut of weather-related imagery.
Sunsets, sunrises, wildlife and of course every type of weather condition are vividly depicted in images captured from yours and our cameras.
Click the play button below and sit back and enjoy the images.
What is missing in the slideshow above? Your photo!
Our monthly photo slideshow is going to feature images that we have taken but more importantly images that you have captured. The photos can be of anything even remotely weather-related.
Landscapes, current conditions, wildlife, pets, kids. Whimsical, newsy, artsy. Taken at the zoo, some other area attraction, a local park, a national park or your backyard. You name it, we want to see and share it!
Images can be taken in Thornton, Denver or anywhere across the extraordinary Centennial State. We’ll even take some from out of state if we can tie it to Colorado somehow.
We’ll keep the criteria very open to interpretation with just about any image eligible to be shown in our slideshows.
What do you win for having your image in our slideshow? We are just a ‘mom and pop’ outfit and make no money from our site so we really don’t have the means to provide prizes. However you will have our undying gratitude and the satisfaction that your images are shared on the most popular website in Thornton.
To share you images with us and get them included in the slideshow just email them to us or share them with ThorntonWeather.com on any of the various social media outlets. Links are provided below.
August 27, 2014 – Dawn reveals fresh snow on top of Mount Evans. (DU)
Snow at the Centennial State’s elevations can occur any time of year and last night Mother Nature delivered a white reminder that fall and winter are not far behind.
On Monday, the Colorado Department of Transportation closed the road to the top of Mount Evans due to the potential for snowfall. That potential was realized overnight last night as the observatory webcam this morning showed a couple of inches of snow on the ground.
This morning CDOT’s website reports the road is, “Closed from Summit Lake to top of Mount Evans due to adverse conditions. There is no estimated time of opening.”
The highest paved road in North America, the road to the summit of Mount Evans usually remains open until the first weekend of October when conditions prevent it from being maintained. It doesn’t reopen until the Friday before Memorial Day.
Other areas of the high country saw light doses of snow last night.
At 8:20pm last night the National Weather Service reported that 13,495 foot high Berthoud Pass was reporting 34 degrees. Moderate snow was falling and visibility had been reduced to 1/2 mile.
Snowfall above timberline will be possible tonight with potential accumulations of 1 to 2 inches in some locations.
Stay up to date with the dynamic weather: Be sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and add us to your Google+ circles.
Longtime Denver residents well know that earthquakes here are not unheard of.
From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, small quakes in the Denver area were relatively common. The majority of those have been attributed to the injection of liquid waste into the Earth out at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.
Similar manmade processes are believed to be the source of recent earthquake activity in Oklahoma and possibly the earthquakes seen in May and June of this year near Greeley.
Southern Colorado near Trinidad routinely sees small earthquakes. Some of the activity there may be related to mining. However the area is also home to the Northern Sangre de Christo Fault and the Southern Sawatch Fault, both of which have been sources of activity in the past.
Looking farther back, it was on November 7, 1882 that the largest known quake in the state’s history occurred. A temblor estimated at magnitude 6.6 struck near Rocky Mountain National Park. Contemporary news accounts of the day indicate damage was seen in Boulder and the quake was felt as far away as Salina, Kansas and Salt Lake City, Utah.
As summer vacations wind down and families prepare to send their kids back to school in August, Colorado weather also starts to settle down. The chances for severe weather decrease markedly during August and by the end of the month daytime temperatures are dropping quite a bit as well. Find out more about what lies ahead with Thornton’s August weather here.
July 2014 will go into the history books as one of the wettest on record in the Mile High City. A healthy monsoon flow also contributed to overall below normal temperatures.
The month started out cooler than normal but the third of the month brought a string of 90 plus degree days that lasted until the 11th of the month with only one day not reaching the mark during that time.
Cooler temperatures arrived for the next seven days with three of those seeing highs only in the 70s. A healthy shot of moisture on the 11th turned lawns green.
We bounced right back to the 90s on the 19th but then saw the cool weather return on the 27th. Light rain on the 28th was followed by heavy rain on the 29th and 30th pushing the month into the rain fall record books.
The 30th of the month was notable for a record setting low maximum temperature with a reading more like we would expect to see in April or October.
Thornton saw an overall average temperature for July 2014 of 71.5 degrees. This is well below the Denver July average of 74.2 degrees.
As measured at Denver International Airport, the Mile High City’s official reading was warmer than ours with an average of 74.5. The airport’s location further east allows it to hold off seeing the typical afternoon clouds for a bit longer than areas to the west and thus it typically sees warmer temperatures.
Our warmest temperature reading of the month was 98.2 degrees on the 7th. Thornton recorded 16 days of 90 degree or warmer temperatures. Conversely, our coldest reading was 54.1 degrees on the first of the month.
Denver’s maximum reading also occurred on the 7th but was warmer at 100 degrees. The airport saw 17 days with reading of 90 degrees or higher. The lowest reading of the month was 55 degrees on the 16th and 17th.
One temperature record was set during July. On the 30th the maximum temperature only reached 62 degrees (Thornton recorded 62.2 degrees). This broke the record low maximum for the date of 64 degrees set in 2009.
In terms of precipitation, there was plenty of it across the board.
Denver averages 2.16 inches during July. In Thornton we recorded a healthy 4.69 inches while Denver officially saw 3.85 inches.
For both locations, nearly half of those totals came on the 29th and 30th. The Denver total puts it into the books as one of the wettest Julys on record. Additionally, the Denver total on the 29th set a record for that date.
Thornton, Colorado July 2014 Temperature Summary. (ThorntonWeather.com)Thornton, Colorado July 2014 Precipitation Summary. (ThorntonWeather.com)
CLIMATE REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOULDER, CO
550 AM MDT FRI AUG 1 2014
...................................
...THE DENVER CO CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH OF JULY 2014...
CLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD 1981 TO 2010
CLIMATE RECORD PERIOD 1872 TO 2014
WEATHER OBSERVED NORMAL DEPART LAST YEAR`S
VALUE DATE(S) VALUE FROM VALUE DATE(S)
NORMAL
................................................................
TEMPERATURE (F)
RECORD
HIGH 105 07/20/2005
LOW 42 07/04/1903
07/31/1873
HIGHEST 100 07/07 105 -5 100 07/11
LOWEST 55 07/17 42 13 55 07/02
07/16
AVG. MAXIMUM 88.3 89.4 -1.1 88.2
AVG. MINIMUM 60.6 58.9 1.7 60.4
MEAN 74.5 74.2 0.3 74.3
DAYS MAX >= 90 17 16.0 1.0 17
DAYS MAX <= 32 0 0.0 0.0 0
DAYS MIN <= 32 0 0.0 0.0 0
DAYS MIN <= 0 0 0.0 0.0 0
PRECIPITATION (INCHES)
RECORD
MAXIMUM 6.41 1965
MINIMUM 0.01 1901
TOTALS 3.85 2.16 1.69 1.98
DAILY AVG. 0.12 0.07 0.05 0.06
DAYS >= .01 8 8.3 -0.3 7
DAYS >= .10 6 4.3 1.7 4
DAYS >= .50 2 1.4 0.6 2
DAYS >= 1.00 2 0.7 1.3 0
GREATEST
24 HR. TOTAL 2.85 07/29 TO 07/30
SNOWFALL (INCHES)
RECORDS
TOTAL 0.0
TOTALS 0.0 0.0
DEGREE_DAYS
HEATING TOTAL 5 6 -1 0
SINCE 7/1 5 6 -1 0
COOLING TOTAL 304 289 15 295
SINCE 1/1 431 444 -13 558
FREEZE DATES
RECORD
EARLIEST 09/08/1962
LATEST 06/08/2007
EARLIEST 10/07
LATEST 05/05
......................................................
WIND (MPH)
AVERAGE WIND SPEED 9.7
RESULTANT WIND SPEED/DIRECTION 3/193
HIGHEST WIND SPEED/DIRECTION 51/310 DATE 07/11
HIGHEST GUST SPEED/DIRECTION 51/290 DATE 07/11
SKY COVER
POSSIBLE SUNSHINE (PERCENT) MM
AVERAGE SKY COVER 0.60
NUMBER OF DAYS FAIR 4
NUMBER OF DAYS PC 24
NUMBER OF DAYS CLOUDY 3
AVERAGE RH (PERCENT) 51
WEATHER CONDITIONS. NUMBER OF DAYS WITH
THUNDERSTORM 0 MIXED PRECIP 0
HEAVY RAIN 2 RAIN 7
LIGHT RAIN 13 FREEZING RAIN 0
LT FREEZING RAIN 0 HAIL 0
HEAVY SNOW 0 SNOW 0
LIGHT SNOW 0 SLEET 0
FOG 8 FOG W/VIS <= 1/4 MILE 1
HAZE 7
- INDICATES NEGATIVE NUMBERS.
R INDICATES RECORD WAS SET OR TIED.
MM INDICATES DATA IS MISSING.
T INDICATES TRACE AMOUNT.
July 3, 2014 – A gorgeous July sunset. (LE Worley)
The month of July typically brings a pretty tried and true daily weather pattern with hot days and afternoon thunderstorms. Like any month of the year in Colorado, a wide variety of subjects will be presented for photo opportunities.
Flowers are now in full bloom, wildlife is abundant with many creatures showing their young for the first time, and then of course there is the weather. Scorching heat, damaging thunderstorms, heavy rains and more are all possible during the month.
Slideshow updated July 31, 2014
To learn more about how to send your photo to us for inclusion in the slideshow, see below the slideshow.
Showcasing images captured by ThorntonWeather.com readers as well as some of our own, our monthly slideshow covers the entire gamut of weather-related imagery.
Sunsets, sunrises, wildlife and of course every type of weather condition are vividly depicted in images captured from yours and our cameras.
Click the play button below and sit back and enjoy the images.
What is missing in the slideshow above? Your photo!
Our monthly photo slideshow is going to feature images that we have taken but more importantly images that you have captured. The photos can be of anything even remotely weather-related.
Landscapes, current conditions, wildlife, pets, kids. Whimsical, newsy, artsy. Taken at the zoo, some other area attraction, a local park, a national park or your backyard. You name it, we want to see and share it!
Images can be taken in Thornton, Denver or anywhere across the extraordinary Centennial State. We’ll even take some from out of state if we can tie it to Colorado somehow.
We’ll keep the criteria very open to interpretation with just about any image eligible to be shown in our slideshows.
What do you win for having your image in our slideshow? We are just a ‘mom and pop’ outfit and make no money from our site so we really don’t have the means to provide prizes. However you will have our undying gratitude and the satisfaction that your images are shared on the most popular website in Thornton.
To share you images with us and get them included in the slideshow just email them to us or share them with ThorntonWeather.com on any of the various social media outlets. Links are provided below.
Following on a cooler and wetter than normal August, the month of September arrives and one can’t help but wonder if an early fall lies in wait as well. The month can bring our first snow of the season but more often than not, it is one of the most pleasant along the Colorado Front Range.
