The unofficial start of the Atlantic hurricane season is June 1 and Mother Nature has wasted no time in delivering its first named storm. Tropical Storm Andrea has formed in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to make landfall in Florida Thursday afternoon or evening. Get the complete story with forecast track maps, video and more on Examiner.com
WeatherNation TV has long been a ‘best kept secret’ for those seeking weather news and information without the unrelated programming offered by that other weather channel. Now the company has broken into the Denver television market with a partnership with 9NEWS KUSA extending their reach in their home city.
Once upon a time there was a cable network that could be trusted for weather news but that channel has strayed far from their roots and are but a shadow of their former selves.
Now, with WeatherNation TV, there is an alternative with 24/7 weather as it should be. ThorntonWeather.com is happy to see them arrive in the Mile High City. Get more details on where you can watch WeatherNation TV in this story on Examiner.com.
The tornado that struck near El Reno, Oklahoma on Friday and killed 18 people has now reached the scale of topping the history books. Not only did its rating top the scales, its 2.6 mile width was the largest in U.S. history. Read the rest of this story on Examiner.com for all the details on this record-breaking tornado.
Following on colder and wetter than normal weather in previous months, Thornton’s May returned us to drier and warmer than normal conditions.
The month started out with a bit of a wintry blast of cold temperatures and snow. In fact, Denver even set an all-time May low temperature on the 2nd of the month.
The cold and snow that started the month were probably overall the most notable feature of the month. The rest of May was not particularly extraordinary in any aspect.
Denver’s average temperature for the month was 57.9 degrees. This was 0.8 degrees above average. Here in Thornton we were just slightly cooler with an average temperature of 57.6 degrees.
Thornton’s temperatures ranged from a high of 89.2 degrees on the 14th down to a low of 20.7 degrees on the morning of the 2nd. Denver saw a maximum temperature of 88 and a low of 19 degrees.
Official Denver temperature records for the month included:
DAILY RECORDS:
DATE TEMPERATURE TYPE OF RECORD OLD RECORD YEAR LAST SET
MAY 2ND 19 DEGREES RECORD LOW 22 DEGREES 1954
MAY 14TH 87 DEGREES TIED RECORD HIGH 87 DEGREES 1996
MONTHLY RECORDS:
DATE TEMPERATURE TYPE OF RECORD OLD RECORD YEAR LAST SET
MAY 2ND 19 DEGREES TIED RECORD LOW 19 DEGREES MAY 3RD 1907
In terms of precipitation, Denver recorded only 0.82 inches, far below the average for May of 2.12 inches. Here in Thornton Mother Nature was far more generous as we recorded 2.35 inches.
The snow that started the month totaled 4.3 inches in Thornton, 3.4 inches in Denver. Both were well above the May average of 1.1 inches snowfall.
Click here to view the ThorntonWeather.com May 2013 Climate Summary
Three men who had dedicated themselves to furthering the knowledge and science of severe weather were among those killed Friday in a deadly twister that struck El Reno, Oklahoma. Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and their chase partner Carl Young, were well-known within the weather enthusiast community but also known to many Americans following their appearance on a television show. Read the rest of this story on Examiner.com
One of our favorite pastimes is simply watching the clouds. Colorado’s widely varying weather provides a stunning variety in almost every season. One photographer captured an amazing time lapse video of what he called “Bubbly Rocky Mountain Clouds.”
Watch the video below. Just beautiful!
Bubbly Rocky Mountain Clouds from David Harpe on Vimeo.
Storm chaser and IMAX film maker Sean Casey and his team captured what is arguably the most extraordinary video taken from inside a tornado ever. From inside the relative safety of their Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV), the team was able to enter a monstrous wedge tornado near Smith Center, Kansas yesterday. Read the rest of this story and watch the amazing video on Examiner.com
A fast moving jet stream coupled with quickly rising temperatures and unusually high humidity ripened conditions for what we now simply call the ‘Windsor tornado.’ Soon after 11:00am that morning a monstrous supercell thunderstorm could be seen erupting to the north of the Denver area.
Tornado warnings were soon issued by the National Weather Service and a Gilcrest police officer radioed, “We have a tornado on the ground!”
Indeed this was no ordinary Colorado tornado. This was to become an EF-3 monster three quarters of a mile wide and packing winds up to 165 mph, an event more associated with the plains of Oklahoma.
Over the course of 35 miles and 45 minutes the tornado ripped through the landscape. Making the event all the more unusual was its movement to the northwest, far different than typical tornadoes which move to the northeast.
Day became almost as dark as night as the ominous wedge approached Windsor. Hail as large as softballs began to rain down.
At 11:57 a.m. the town became ground zero.
Scared residents rushed for safety as nature’s most violent phenomena arrived. Power poles were snapped like matchsticks, semi-trailers were overturned like toy cars, and homes and buildings were reduced to their basic building materials.
Windsor resident Jill Gallagher told the Windsor Beacon this week of her huddling in her basement with her daughters as the twister struck. After it passed, “That’s when I turned and looked up my stairwell, and that’s when I knew something had majorly happened.”
Gallagher said her stairs were blocked and she was staring up at blue sky instead of her home’s ceiling.
The power of the storm was fully evident in the toll on life and property.
One man was killed west of Greeley at Missile Silo Park Campground and 78 people were injured. Property damages totaled $193.5 million as nearly 300 homes were destroyed or significant damaged and another 850 sustained less substantial damage.
Lying on the western edge of the infamous Tornado Alley, twisters are quite commonplace in the Centennial State. From 1950 to 2012 there have been 1,983 tornadoes scattered across the state. Most though occur on the eastern plains, well away from the higher terrain of the west and the more populous Front Range. Only 20 of those have attained F3 strength.
Today, five years after that deadly day, a drive through Windsor would yield few signs of the tornado that caused so much devastation. The residents however are quick to remember it, particularly in light of the recent deadly tornadoes in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma.
The National Weather Service has completed its initial damage survey of the area near Moore, Oklahoma, where a deadly tornado struck yesterday. Its assessment pegs the twister as an EF-5 packing winds in excess of 200 mph – the highest rating possible on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Only one percent of all tornadoes achieve this strength. Including yesterday’s twister, there have been 59 in the U.S. since 1950. Read the rest of this story on Examiner.com
As residents of Moore, Oklahoma wake this morning they are faced with the seemingly insurmountable task of recovering from the deadly tornado that struck yesterday. For one Oklahoma woman, the recovery will be a little bit easier as her dog was discovered alive, buried under the rubble during a television interview. Read the rest of this heartwarming story on Examiner.com.
