June typically brings severe weather to Thornton and the Denver area.
June is historically Denver’s severe weather month and severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and hail are notorious visitors to Denver and across eastern Colorado during the month. In fact, over 40 percent of the tornadoes that occur in Colorado are observed in June and these are typically the most destructive of the year. Severe thunderstorms have also caused major property damage across the Front Range during the month.
In just the last 25 years or so, there have been some particularly notable storms in June. Tornadoes have struck the metro area including one that longtime Thornton residents will recall on June 3, 1981. 53 residents were injured, 25 homes were destroyed and 239 other structures were damaged. Others tornadoes in the metro area include southeast Denver and Aurora on June 8, 1986 and east Denver on June 13, 1984. Severe thunderstorms occurring on June 13, 1984 dumped large hail making it one of the worst and the second costliest storm in Denver history. More recently, on June 20, 2001, a major hail storm moved across Denver International Airport dropping hailstones as big as two inches in diameter. Damage was extensive on and near the airport.
ThorntonWeather.com is ready to begin the hunt for tornadoes!
Storm Chase 2010 is making final preparations to take to the Great Plains on Saturday. With severe weather forecast for the northern plains, the opportunity is too good to resist so the hunt begins a day early.
The Storm Prediction Center has placed a slight risk for severe weather on an area from northeastern Colorado into Nebraska and then north from there. The risk for tornadoes is relatively small but even if we don’t see a twister, there is a good chance to witness some great storm structure as well as strong winds and hail.
The tour we are a part of isn’t officially supposed to start until tomorrow and we must be in Denver this evening to meet with the rest of the group. As such, today’s chase will be relatively short and won’t cover too much of a distance.
Roger Hill, famed storm chaser and tour leader, will outline the plans for the chase later today but we are anticipating we will hunt northeastern Colorado and western Nebraska. If all goes according to plan, we should be on the road by noon (MDT) and on our way to the target area.
We will be bringing along Examiner and ThorntonWeather.com readers on this great chase. There are no guarantees because as we all know, Mother Nature is far from reliable – six days on the plains could yield little more than rain. However, confidence is high that you will be taken on a virtual ride unlike any other with videos, photos and more from the road.
To keep things simple, ThorntonWeather.com’s chief amateur meteorologist will be primarily posting things to the Storm Chase 2010 Examiner’s home page. To be sure you don’t miss a thing, check the Storm Chase 2010 Examiner’s home page regularly. Be sure to click the “Subscribe” link at the top of the page and you will be emailed whenever a new story is posted.
Hail covers the road at 104th Avenue and Chambers Road on Wednesday afternoon. (Chelsea Kovach)
Colorado’s severe weather season is upon us and it paid a visit to the north Denver metro area in spades on Wednesday. Brief, heavy rain, large hail and a few tornadoes were reported with the fast moving storms.
Isolated thunderstorms began popping up along the Front Range after lunchtime, quickly turning severe in nature.
Hail nearly three inches in diameter pounded vehicles and homes in north Denver, Commerce City, Thornton and unincorporated Adams County. Enough hail fell in the Reunion development area of Commerce City to cover the ground like snow. Residents used snow blowers and state highway crews used snowplows to clear the frozen water.
An untold number of vehicles sustained heavy damage in the area northeast of downtown Denver. Reports of broken windows, roofs with damage and trees stripped of leaves were commonplace. In the central part of Thornton there were reports of hail up to 1.75 inches in diameter.
Operations at Denver International Airport were affected as flights were delayed while the severe weather passed. Delays of 30 to 60 minutes were experienced and those inside the airport were instructed to go to designated tornado shelters for a time.
Brief, weak tornadoes were reported in some areas and strong winds caused damage further northeast of the area. In Larimer County, multiple structures were reportedly destroyed and a 15 foot silo was knocked down.
The severe weather was enough to draw the attention of the VORTEX 2 tornado study. The research study is the largest field study of tornadoes with hundreds of scientists and dozens of vehicles roaming the plains to learn more about the severe weather. The teams tracked the storms as they moved from near DIA to the plains further to the northeast.
Are you ready for severe weather? Do you know what to do to keep you and your family safe? Review our Severe Weather 101 series to learn more:
ThorntonWeather.com's chief amateur meteorologist will be on the hunt for tornadoes starting next week. Be sure to follow along!
Severe weather season brings danger and destruction to the Great Plains of the United States. No other place on earth sees as many tornadoes as this region and now ThorntonWeather.com is going to go on the hunt in an attempt to witness Mother Nature’s fury up close and personal.
As we have pointed out before, the owner and operator of ThorntonWeather.com writes weather, disaster and climate news for Examiner.com. This allows Tony to share his passion for the topics and also helps to pay for all the great features ThorntonWeather.com visitors enjoy.
Starting Sunday, May 30th and for the six days following, one Examiner will seek out and attempt to witness and document these events. World famous storm chaser Roger Hill will serve as tour guide and teacher for the Examiner and a group of weather enthusiasts as they hunt the ultimate prize – tornadoes.
An average of over 1,300 tornadoes have struck the United States in each of the last three years claiming more than 200 lives total. These devastating events can strike with little warning and with a fury unseen with any other natural phenomena.
We will be bringing along Examiner and ThorntonWeather.com readers on this great chase. There are no guarantees because as we all know, Mother Nature is far from reliable – six days on the plains could yield little more than rain. However, confidence is high that you will be taken on a virtual ride unlike any other with videos, photos and more from the road.
To keep things simple, ThorntonWeather.com’s chief amateur meteorologist will be primarily posting things to the Storm Chase 2010 Examiner’s home page. To be sure you don’t miss a thing, check the Storm Chase 2010 Examiner’s home page regularly. Be sure to click the “Subscribe” link at the top of the page and you will be emailed whenever a new story is posted.
From Hurricane Andrew to Hurricane Katrina, the names given one of the earth’s most devastating disasters become part of our history and are forever associated with the death and destruction they bring. For the 2010 hurricane season, the names chosen run through 21 letters of the alphabet from Alex to Walter.
During World War II, the practice of naming storms only for women became common practice but in 1951 the United States changed that and began naming them using the phonetic alphabet. By 1953 however the practice of naming them for women returned. In 1979 the current system which includes male and female names was adopted.
Storms get their name when they reach 39 mph (34 knots) and are then officially a tropical storm. In the North Atlantic, the World Meteorological Organization determines what names will be used for a given season on a six year rotating basis with one of 21 letters of the alphabet used in order. The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used due to the lack of names available using those and the names that are chosen alternate male and female.
Should the situation arise where all 21 names are used during a season, any additional storms are named after the letters of the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc). Only one time have there been enough storms to exceed the usual 21 names – In 2005 there were 27 named storms.
When a storm has caused extensive damage or death, the World Meteorological Organization can vote to retire a name. There are currently 74 retired names including 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and 1992’s Hurricane Andrew.
More hurricane news from the Natural Disasters Examiner:
Hurricanes are a deadly and devastating annual ritual for much of the Gulf Coast and East Coast of the United States. With June 1st being the unofficial start of hurricane season, President Barack Obama proclaimed this week National Hurricane Preparedness Week.
Hurricane Isabel is seen on September 15, 2003 from the International Space Station. (NASA)
Throughout the week the National Hurricane Center (NHC) will be releasing information designed to inform and educate residents of areas that are at risk for hurricanes. This annual event is crucial to ensuring that residents are adequately prepared for hurricane season and the hazards these monstrous storms can present.
In the proclamation, Obama wrote, “I urge individuals, families, communities, and businesses to take time to plan for the storm season before it begins. While hurricane forecasting has improved, storms may still develop with little warning. For Americans in hurricane threatened areas, knowledge and preparation are pivotal to ensure emergency readiness and responsiveness.”
Read the complete text of the proclamation below
All indications are that the 2010 hurricane season will be one of the biggest in recent years. Colorado State University’s forecast team has said that there is a 69% chance a major hurricane will make landfall in the United States this year. The National Hurricane Center is already tracking an area of interest that it says has a medium chance to become the first named storm of the season.
A powerful half-mile wide tornado ripped through South Dakota on Saturday, May 22, 2010. (NWS) Watch video of the twister and see a slideshow of the damage below.
A massive tornado reminiscent of a famous tornado in the state’s history ripped through central South Dakota on Saturday. The powerful twister appears to have been an EF3 tornado packing winds of over 160 mph and while damage to homes was recorded, miraculously no one was injured.
Supercell thunderstorms began forming on the South Dakota plains yesterday afternoon and began spawning tornadoes. The twisters were reported near the towns of Bowdle, Hosmer, Ipswich and Wetonka.
The National Weather Service’s Aberdeen, SD office reported that the largest of these appears to have done at least EF3 level damage, a level classified as “severe.” The twister tore through parts of Brown and McPherson Counties coming closes to the town of Bowdle.
The storm damage evaluation is ongoing but National Weather Service personnel said the tornado was at least one-half mile wide at its largest. No injuries were reported however three farms were damaged and numerous power lines were downed.
Images of the storm drew parallels to a tornado on June 24, 2003 that struck the town of Manchester, South Dakota. That twister, rated an F4, destroyed the town and to this day it has not been rebuilt. The photos of both events looked eerily similar.
ThorntonWeather.com now brings local, Thornton weather to your advanced mobile phone.
With the advent of new advanced mobile phones like the Droid and iPhone, users of these devices are able to view more complete content than ever before. No longer are they limited to totally stripped down versions of web pages. Recognizing the proliferation of these new devices, ThorntonWeather.com has completely revamped our mobile website to provide users of advanced mobile devices a more interactive, graphical experience.
On ThorntonWeather.com Mobile (http://m.thorntonweather.com) you will find a familiar looking ‘dashboard’ much like on our full site. It provides real-time Thornton weather conditions as well as an almanac with sunrise and sunset times, moon rise and moon set times, as well as the moon phases.
The forecast page has your complete local, Thornton forecast – not a forecast for DIA or downtown. Radar is of course available including a local, regional and national view. You can also view our weather webcams on the webcams page and graphs of today’s weather as well as days past.
Looking for some reading material? Our news and blog section now has a mobile version as well which you can access from the mobile pages. All of our recent news stories are available for viewing by mobile users.
You can access the mobile site by clicking the “Mobile” button on the top right of our main site or direct your phone’s mobile browser to http://m.thorntonweather.com. Be sure to bookmark it so you can come back to it easily.
May 23 to May 29 - This week in Denver weather history
We are getting closer to Colorado’s severe weather season and see how dangerous it can be when we look back in Denver weather history. Many occurrences of dangerous lightning, large hail, flooding and tornadoes have been the hallmark of this week in Denver weather history.
20-27
In 2002…lightning sparked a wildfire near Deckers. Extremely dry conditions and very strong winds the following day allowed the fire…known as the schoonover…to consume 3850 acres before it could be contained. Thirteen structures were destroyed…including 4 homes…resulting in 2.2 million dollars in damage.
21-23
In 1876…snow changed to heavy rain over the city…resulting in widespread flooding along Cherry Creek and the South Platte River…nearly as great as the flash flood of May 19-20…1864. However…damage was greater because the city had grown much larger and there were more bridges for the flood waters to destroy. Precipitation in the city totaled 6.70 inches from 10:00 pm on the 21st through 3:00 am on the 23rd. The greatest precipitation ever recorded in Denver in 24 hours…6.53 inches…occurred on the 21st and 22nd. Small buildings and bridges along Cherry Creek were washed away by the flood waters. Bridges over the South Platte River were damaged. The city irrigation ditch was damaged and rendered unfit for service. Strong winds at speeds of 30 to 40 mph drove the heavy rain through brick walls 12 to 16 inches thick. Many sheep and cattle were either killed by lightning or drowned…including some 100 head of cattle in Jefferson County alone. There was immense damage to railroad tracks…especially the Kansas Pacific line to the east of the city. The Colorado Central suffered estimated damage of 10 to 15 thousand dollars. In addition…the heavy rain caused extensive flooding on soda and bear creeks in the foothills. Flooding along Boulder creek inundated farm and pasture land in the Boulder valley and damaged a few bridges. Rail travel had to be suspended in the area for several days.
22-23
In 1933…high winds and gales overnight caused considerable damage in and near the city. Much greenhouse glass was broken…which caused damage to sheltered plants. Great numbers of plants growing in the open were damaged or killed by wind-driven sand and soil. Fields were eroded by the wind and a few trees were uprooted. West winds were sustained to 38 mph with gusts as high as 65 mph in downtown Denver on the 22nd.
23
In 1916…southeast winds were sustained to 43 mph with gusts as high as 52 mph. The winds were strong for several hours during the afternoon.
In 1965…thunderstorm outflow wind gusts to 59 mph were recorded at Stapleton International Airport.
In 1987…slow moving thunderstorms bombarded metro Denver. One inch diameter hail was reported in south central Denver. Torrential rain caused widespread street flooding… Stalling traffic throughout the area. Rainfall totaled 2.10 inches in just 25 minutes in extreme southeast Aurora. Many other locations in Aurora and east Denver reported 1 to 1 1/2 inches of rain in about 30 minutes. Thunderstorm rainfall totaled 1.33 inches at Stapleton International Airport where 1/4 inch diameter hail was measured and north winds gusted to 40 mph. A man was slightly injured by lightning near Stapleton International Airport. Lightning also started a fire that severely damaged a house in Aurora.
In 1990…a microburst wind gust to 52 mph at Stapleton International Airport produced some blowing dust.
In 1991…thunderstorms moving from southwestern sections of metro Denver to the east of Denver produced large hail up to golf ball size. An estimated 5 thousand homes and 8 thousand cars received considerable damage. Early estimates placed damage costs around 60 million dollars. Three funnel clouds were also reported…two by personnel at Buckley Field and the other by a storm spotter. Heavy rain produced street flooding in Aurora where hail accumulated to a depth of 6 inches. As the storms moved to the east…golf ball size hail was reported at Strasburg.
In 1997…hail to 3/4 inch diameter fell in Broomfield.
In 2002…a very strong microburst near Strasburg swept a woman into a swirl of dirt and carried her about 150 feet. The woman was in an open field…corralling a yearling horse… When the incident occurred. Fortunately…she received only minor injuries.
Dangerous driving and irresponsible behavior by some storm chasers has led to worries that someone will get killed while chasing storms soon. In this image from a video, the infamous Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) is seen passing other vehicles in an unsafe manner. Watch the video at the link below. (YouTube / Steve Miller)
Professional and amateur storm chasers, television and movie crews, researchers and news media all converge on Tornado Alley during storm season. Severe weather is fascinating and it has been brought more and more into the public eye thanks to the Internet and popular television shows. That popularity has given rise to increased danger to everyone and many say it is only a matter of time before someone chasing a storm gets killed.
Over recent weeks, tornado outbreaks in Oklahoma have seen hundreds of chasers of all types converge on tornado producing storms. Some are there for fun, others to study the phenomena for science, a few to get their two minutes of fame by capturing video to be shown on the Weather Channel and some to capture ‘the perfect shot’ for a movie.
With so many people in a relatively small area chasing the same target, conflicts are sure to arise and they have. Traffic jams of chasers around the storms have created a safety hazard as vehicles are unable to move. People are exiting their vehicles, standing in the middle of roads, all to get a glimpse of a twister.
Many have put the blame for the problem on inexperienced chasers, lured to the chase by what they see on television and the Internet. To be sure these novices can cause problems however they are not the only ones by far.
Vortex 2, the largest tornado research project in history, has brought a veritable armada of vehicles to bear chasing storms. The group’s mission of trying to learn more about tornadoes is important and Dr. Josh Wurman, one of the scientists involved with the project, laments that chasers are getting in the way of science.
.jpg "A powerful half-mile wide tornado ripped through South Dakota on Saturday, May 22, 2010. (NWS) Watch video of the twister and see a slideshow of the damage below.")
