Mother Nature supported forecasters’ calls for severe weather on Wednesday bringing extraordinary amounts of rain, hail and even tornadoes to the Colorado plains on Wednesday. The stage is set for a second round of similar storms today…
Tag Archives: Severe Weather
ThorntonWeather.com announces Severe Weather Awareness Week contest
As the nation’s midsection digs out from an extraordinary day of severe weather and tornadoes, Colorado’s Severe Weather Awareness Week kicks off. To raise awareness of the dangerous weather Thornton residents face each year, ThorntonWeather.com is going to give away a NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio *.
We have long said that every resident should own a weather radio. These devices tap directly into the National Weather Service and sound an alarm when severe weather is approaching. Life saving information and instructions are then broadcast giving you the precious moments that you may have to take action before disaster strikes.
To help raise awareness of severe weather and these devices, we are giving away a Midland WR-120B weather radio. The radio has all of the essential features including SAME alert programming, a siren and voice alert, battery backup and it is trilingual.
It is our goal that even if you don’t win the radio, you will take action and purchase a weather radio on your own. To learn more about these important devices and why you should own one, click here.
So how do you win? It is easy!
All you have to do is share our Facebook page or Google+ page with all of your friends telling them how great a resource ThorntonWeather.com is and ask them to ‘like’ us or add us to their ‘circles.’
Simply follow the links below and click ‘Share’ if on Facebook or ‘Share this post’ on Google+. Be sure to do this from the postings linked below so that we can see that you shared it and in doing so you are automatically entered.
We will then randomly pick a winner on Monday, April 23 after Severe Weather Awareness Week is over.
Click here for the Facebook posting to share
Click here for the Google+ posting to share
* Contest is open to residents of the Denver / Boulder metropolitan area (verified by shipping address). Weather radio will be shipped directly to the winning contestant from Amazon.com. Allow up to 2 weeks for delivery after the contest ends.
Thornton gets pounded by nighttime storms bringing hail, wind and flooding rains
For eight days in a row monsoonal flow fed thunderstorms have struck Thornton and Tuesday night brought arguably the best show yet. Heavy rain, hail, gusty winds and an extraordinary amount of lightning roused residents soon after nightfall.
Storms initially formed in the afternoon and were focused south of Denver in Elbert County. Near Kiowa, Elizabeth and Agate hail up to 1 3/4” in diameter was recorded. The slow-moving storms deposited as much as five inches of rain near Agate. Three twisters were reported in Elbert County but no damage was realized.
It appeared for a time that Thornton was going to escape the intense weather but once the sun went down the picture changed dramatically. Seemingly out of nowhere a storm cell popped up at around 9:20pm and moved across the north Denver metro area.
- Don’t get caught off guard by the weather! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and ‘like’ us on Facebook for all the latest weather news!
Heavy rain fell across a large part of the area from downtown northward to Thornton. 1.76 inches of rain was recorded north of downtown Denver at DenverWX.com as the storm passed through.
Street flooding was reported across the surrounding areas causing difficulty for motorists.
Here in Thornton we were pounded with heavy rain and a great deal of pea-sized hail. ThorntonWeather.com recorded its first inch of rain in only 14 minutes and the storm total for the overnight storm was 1.90 inches.
Strong winds also brought down trees and power lines knocking out power to nearly 10,000 Denver area residents including some in Thornton. Xcel Energy reports power has been restored to most areas this morning.
Denver International Airport recorded a thunderstorm wind gust of 66mph shortly before 10:00pm. A ground stop was issued and all flights were temporarily delayed while the storm moved through.
Forecasters had predicted a late and shorter than normal monsoon season due to La Niña’s lasting effect – that however has not proven to be true.
Monsoonal flow pulling in moisture from Mexico started earlier than normal this year. Tuesday marked the eighth straight day for thunderstorms in the Denver metro area and the current weather forecast has at least a chance for storms through the weekend.
To date Thornton has recorded 4.22 inches of precipitation during the month of July. This far exceeds the Denver historical average of 2.16 inches for July and with the month less than half over, chances are we could achieve ‘top 10 wettest’ status by the end of the month.
Stunning satellite imagery shows damage path of deadly EF3 Massachusetts tornado
The Bay State is not one which is normally associated with tornadoes having only seen 152 twisters in the past 60 years – up until last week. Massachusetts took a big hit last week though as a massive tornado ripped through the Springfield area killing four people.
Satellite imagery released by the USGS and NASA (below) shows the scar the EF3 tornado left on the earth as it ripped a path 39 miles long. The image taken by Landsat shows the path of the half-mile wide tornado as it cut through Sturbridge and beyond.
The twister first touched down near Westfield and then moved into Springfield after crossing the Connecticut River. Both areas saw extensive damage to buildings and homes as the twister moved through.
As it moved east the tornado debarked trees and struck the town of Monson where extensive damage was seen. It eventually hit Brimfield Sate Forest and then the Southbridge Airport.
When it was done, four people were killed and 200 injured. Latest estimates put the damage cost at $90 million making it the most costly natural disaster in the state’s history.
Two smaller, EF1 rated tornadoes also struck nearby on the same day. One caused a damage path 3.6 miles long and the other 1.3 miles long.
Related:
- Slideshow: Extensive damage seen across Springfield, Massachusetts in wake of tornado (Examiner.com)
- Video: Tornado rips through Springfield, MA and crosses the Connecticut River (Examiner.com)
Severe weather continues to cause destruction, claim lives
Tornadoes, damaging wind, hail and flooding rains are a fact of life in the United States in the springtime. This season however has seen an absolutely devastating series of storms systems that have brought extraordinary levels of destruction and loss of life.
Among our writing assignments for Examiner.com we are the Natural Disasters Examiner. Of late the vast majority of our coverage has centered on the severe weather. Below are some of the stories we have written in recent days about the outbreaks. Follow the links for greater detail including photos and videos.
Deadly severe weather season continues as 13 killed across three states
Mother Nature continues to pile on more severe weather in what has been a particularly devastating and deadly spring in the United States. Tornadoes, hail, and damaging wind struck the central and southern U.S. yesterday killing at least 13 people.
Deadly Joplin, Missouri tornado rated EF5; Death toll climbs to 125
The tornado that ripped through the southwestern Missouri town of Joplin on Sunday has quickly achieved its place in the annals of weather history. The National Weather Service has completed its evaluation of the deadly twister and given it the highest possible rating even as the death toll continues to climb.
2011 tornado statistics provide chilling empirical evidence of a deadly season
The scenes of utter devastation have been played out across the nation this spring as tornadoes rip across the landscape. The latest statistics for the tornado season show clearly that the death toll has been staggering and the number of twisters record-setting.
Tornado statistics: Top 25 deadliest tornado seasons in U.S. history
On average the United States suffers 80 deaths per year because of tornadoes, more than any other nation on the globe. As warning systems and forecasts have improved the number of tornado-related fatalities has been decreasing but history shows that the loss of life can still be substantial.
Tornado statistics: Top 25 deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history
With an average of 1,200 tornadoes per year, more twisters strike the United States than any other nation in the world. These storms can strike with deadly effects with a single twister covering more than a hundred miles, wiping out entire towns and claiming dozens of lives.
Video captures sheer terror of residents as tornado rips apart Joplin, Missouri
The deadliest tornado since 1953 ripped through the southwestern town of Joplin, Missouri yesterday reducing parts of the town to rubble. A new YouTube video captures the terror felt by residents as they hudled in the back of a convenience store as the twister made a direct hit.
ThorntonWeather.com expands severe weather monitoring capabilities
Recent tornado outbreaks in other parts of the nation serve as a reminder of the dangers severe weather presents. As Colorado prepares to enter its severe weather season, Thornton’s only true local source for weather information ramps up its severe weather monitoring capabilities.
One of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history struck the south last month. Just this past Sunday a tornado that will likely go into the books as the deadliest single twister since 1953 hit Joplin, Missouri. Closer to home, it was just three years ago this week that a massive EF-3 tornado ripped through Windsor, Colorado killing one man and causing millions of dollars in damage.
Severe weather presents a very real threat to residents of Colorado. From flooding rains to hail and of course tornadoes we can and do see it all. This year is the 30th anniversary of the 1981 Thornton tornado, the most destructive tornado to have ever hit the Denver metro area.
To help ensure that residents are armed with the news and information needed to keep them and their families safe, ThorntonWeather.com has recently expanded its severe weather products. Residents of the north Denver metro area will find new tools allowing them to monitor the weather in real time as conditions take a turn for the worse.
A new Severe Weather Briefing page on the website provides a one-stop shop for everything severe weather related. The page shows current weather watches and warnings as well as thumbnail images that link to current radar, webcams, a lightning monitor and more.
Also recently added is an Interactive Radar page that supplements ThorntonWeather.com’s existing radar system. The new page allows site visitors to pan around a map and zoom in on any area not only in Colorado but across the nation. Visitors can then see exactly where the severe weather is and where it is headed.
The new pages add to the website’s already substantial severe weather offerings including weather watches and warnings, live NOAA All Hazards Radio, current conditions updated in real-time and much more.
As Thornton’s only true local source for weather, ThorntonWeather.com is dedicated to providing residents with weather information for where they live – not at the airport and not downtown like other news media and weather outlets.
“As a kid the 1981 Thornton tornado sparked my fascination with severe weather,” Tony Hake, owner and operator of ThorntonWeather.com, said. “Adams County and the City of Thornton both lack severe weather warning systems and we are simply trying to fill the gap as best we can. If ThorntonWeather.com can serve a purpose by helping to keep people safe when the weather turns ugly then our mission has been accomplished.”
- What else is new at ThorntonWeather.com? Check out our website change log for details.
For More Information:
ThorntonWeather.com is your local source for Thornton weather and weather related news. Provided as a service to the community, ThorntonWeather.com offers real-time weather information, forecasts, radar, statistics and more!
You can also ‘like’ us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Story originally submitted and posted on YourHub on Monday, May 23, 2011.
Rain and hail put ThorntonFest under water; Annual city festival cancelled
Yesterday’s bout of severe weather dropped more than 2 inches of rain and buried parts of the city in a blanket of white hail. All of it was too much for the City of Thornton’s Multipurpose Field which was submerged by the deluge and the city has announced that ThorntonFest has been cancelled.
“Even though the Saturday forecast calls for a nicer day, we must make the call now,” Thornton Community Services Executive Director Mike Soderberg said in a press release. “Attempting to host an event on fields this wet would result in tens of thousands of dollars in damage.”
The annual festival draws tens of thousands of visitors and is highly popular with residents. All related events have been cancelled as well with the exception being the Cottonwood Classic 5K. That event will still take place at 8:00am at the Thorncreek Shopping Center.
In the wake of the severe weather yesterday the city posted images of the fields submerged under water. Thornton has recorded 2.25 inches of rain in the past 24 hours and parts of the city saw hail reach depths of 3 to 4 inches.
“No one is more disappointed than our staff,” Soderberg said. “They work for hours preparing for these events and watched Wednesday as all of that work flowed down Grange Hall Creek.”
For all the latest Thornton weather news, follow us on Twitter and ‘like’ us on Facebook.
Severe weather pays a visit to Thornton; Time lapse video captures hail
It was quite an eventful afternoon in the Denver metro area as thunderstorms spawned funnel clouds and massive amounts of hail. ThorntonWeather.com’s webcams captured part of the action as the hail piled up enough to make it look like snow.
Our east webcam started to show some light precipitation before 1:00pm and before 3:00pm hail was falling. Mercifully the size of the hail stones remained small but at our location we received a good couple of inches of accumulation. Watch the time lapse video below.
In the area of I-25 and 120th Avenue hail 4 to 5 inches was seen. At the Thornton Multipurpose Fields at 108th and Colorado Blvd where ThorntonFest is to be held this Saturday, the fields were extensively flooded. Images posted by the city to its Facebook page show the mess the rain and hail created.
Funnel clouds were seen across much of the north metro area, mainly in unincorporated Adams County just south of Thornton. As of this writing, no actual tornadoes have been reported.
The Front Range is just beginning to enter its severe weather season. Unfortunately neither the City of Thornton or Adams County provide any sort of warning system to protect residents against the severe weather threat.
Thornton did recently look into alert systems but decided against deploying one. Instead it is waiting for the federal government to deploy its Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN). This is disappointing as there are no guarantees that PLAN will launch on time in 2012 or if it will work as advertised. The vast majority of Colorado counties already have systems in place but Thornton and Adams County residents are left without.
NOAA releases statistics highlighting devastating April tornado outbreak
The devastating tornado outbreak that struck across the southern United States last month continues to be analyzed by the National Weather Service. At latest county 326 people were killed and as many as 305 tornadoes resulted in in the outbreak.
What follows is NOAA’s latest update on the events:
From NOAA:
NOAA’s preliminary estimate is that there were 305 tornadoes during the entire outbreak from 8:00 a.m. EDT April 25 to 8:00 a.m. April 28, 2011. NWS created a table to provide clearer insight into the preliminary number of tornadoes. Each of the three categories in the table below has different levels of confidence/accuracy.
- Eyewitness Reports are the least accurate/reliable because long-lived tornadoes like those in this outbreak tend to be reported multiple times. This artificially increases the number of tornadoes.
- NOAA’s Estimate is based on expert analysis of the Eyewitness Reports compared with the details coming out of the Tornadoes Surveyed by NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFO). It is the statistic NWS uses in public announcements since it is the best estimate at the time. The numbers will change (typically down) as WFOs complete their storm surveys.
- Tornadoes Surveyed by WFOs is the latest confirmed number of tornadoes surveyed by the National Weather Service.
| Preliminary Tornado Data Table | |||
| Date | Eyewitness Reports | NOAA’s Estimate | Tornadoes Surveyed by WFOs (to date) |
| 25-26 | 55 | 40 | 25 |
| 26-27 | 111 | 75 | 42 |
| 27-28 | 268 | 190 | 134 |
| Total: | 434 | 305 | 201
|
- The NWS Storm Prediction Center issued severe weather outlooks five days in advance and tornado watches hours in advance.
- NWS Weather Forecast Offices issued life-saving tornado warnings, with an average lead-time of 24 minutes. NWS issued warnings for more than 90 percent of these tornadoes.
- NWS decision support for this event has been extensive. NWS Weather Forecast Offices in the affected areas of Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia advertised the potential for severe weather in the Tuesday through Wednesday timeframe since late last week. Local offices provided direct decision support services to meet the specific needs of local emergency manager partners and the general public. NWS Weather Forecast Offices issued Hazardous Weather Outlooks up to six days in advance noting the greater threat of strong, long-track tornadoes was expected.
- The largest previous number of tornadoes on record in one event occurred from April 3-4, 1974, with 148 tornadoes.
- NOAA will conduct a detailed analysis of tornado numbers using all available data to make any final determinations about records. This typically takes months to complete.
There were approximately 326 fatalities during the entire outbreak from April 25 to April 28.
There were approximately 309 fatalities during the 24-hour-period from 8:00 a.m. April 27 to 8:00 a.m. April 28. This is currently the fifth deadliest day of tornadoes on record.
- The Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado during the April 2011 event caused at least 65 fatalities. This tornado had a maximum width of 1.5 miles and a track 80 miles long
- These are the most fatalities from a single tornado in the United States since May 25, 1955, when 80 people were killed in a tornado in southern Kansas with 75 of those deaths in Udall, Kansas.
- The deadliest single tornado on record in the United States was the Tri-State tornado (Mo., Ill., Ind.) on March 18, 1925, when 695 died.
According to National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office Storm Survey teams, there were 24+ killer tornadoes in six states–Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia–that caused an estimated 326 fatalities.
The National Weather Service Storm Survey teams have upgraded to EF-5 the tornado that hit Neshoba, Kemper, Winston, Noxubee Counties in Mississippi. The Weather Service has documented three (3) EF-5 tornadoes in this outbreak.
EF-5 Tornado Locations
- Northern Mississippi/Eastern Arkansas
- Smithville in Monroe County
- Mississippi (NEWLY UPGRADED TO EF-5 FROM E-4)
- Northern/Central Alabama (WFO Birmingham Warning Area):
- Hackleburg in Marion County
The following are the tornado fatality breakdowns by state:
- 4 – Arkansas
- 35 – Mississippi
- 236 – Alabama
- 31 – Tennessee
- 5 – Virginia
- 15 – Georgia
Note: All numbers are based on combined NOAA and historical research records and current fatality estimates. The historical research records extend back to 1680.
| Ongoing (preliminary) List of Tornadoes by EF Rating (EF0 to EF5): | |
| EF-5 | 3 |
| EF-4 | 11 |
| EF-3 | 21 |
| EF-2 | 47 |
| EF-1 | 62 |
| EF-0 | 57 |
| Total: | 201 |
The South tries to recover amongst devastation of 2nd deadliest tornado outbreak on record
With entire towns reduced to rubble and damage spread across seven states, people in the southeastern United States began the long task of recovery. The tornadoes that struck this past week claimed 341 lives and achieved the unwanted status as the 2nd deadliest single-day tornado outbreak in U.S. history.
President Barack Obama toured the devastated city of Tuscaloosa in Alabama yesterday saying, “I have never seen devastation like this. It is heartbreaking.”
The National Weather Service received 211 tornado reports during the outbreak, a number that will be reduced once duplicates are removed. No matter the number of twisters, the results were nothing short of devastating.
One tornado that struck near Smithville, Mississippi has received an EF-5 rating – the highest possible. Meteorologists estimate that twister packed winds of 205mph. A tornado in Georgia was rated an EF-4 and at least five EF-3 tornadoes struck Alabama. Weather service officials say they expect more twisters could receive the highest rating as they continue their investigation.
With 341 lives confirmed lost and the number expected to continue to grow, the outbreak ranks as the 2nd deadliest single-day outbreak on record. It surpassed the “Super Outbreak” of 1974 and a 1932 outbreak in the Deep South.
Some are speculating the toll will grow enough for the event to become the worst in history, a truly nightmare scenario. The Tri-State tornado on March 18, 1925 claimed the lives of 747 people. One tornado alone in that outbreak tracked 234 miles across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
Obama has promised to speed federal aid to the region as governor’s in the hardest hit states declared states of emergency. “We can’t bring those who’ve been lost back. They’re alongside God at this point … but the property damage, which is obviously extensive, that’s something we can do something about,” the president said.
Damage estimates continue but an untold number of homes have been destroyed, certainly a number in the thousands. Insured losses could reach between $2 billion and $5 billion which would push the disaster into the top 10 list of most expensive natural disasters in US history.
We are providing complete coverage of the tornado outbreak on Examiner.com. Please visit the following links for more information.
Photo slideshows:
- Slideshow: President Barack Obama tours tornado outbreak devastation in Alabama
- Slideshow: DigitalGlobe, NASA and Geoeye satellites provide view of tornado devastation
- Slideshow: High resolution satellite imagery from NASA shows tornado outbreak
Related stories: