Tornado in Denver? (Aurora: home, school, living in) - Colorado (CO) - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

McGowdog · 05-22-2008, 01:39 PM

I saw on a news crawler that the tornado that hit Windsor killed one person sofar and is heading in the direction of Ft. Collins.

Hope people can get to a basement or something.

There's temps of about 84° on our eastern border and it's about 44° along the Divide, so there's this tunnel of air coming up from the south along the front range. It looks rough into Wyoming and Idaho too.

Laramie, to be exact. Laramie looks like it's right in the center of it now. We've got something coming up from Trinidad now.

WyattE · 05-22-2008, 01:41 PM

Those pictures were absolutely amazing! I hope everyone is ok. That is scary.

WhereTheSidewalkEnds · 05-22-2008, 01:44 PM

I got some exercise today going from my office on the 2nd floor back down to the basement every time the Tornado warning sirens went off here in Longmont today. Apparently one was spotted by police outside of Dacano and in the Niwot area - or at least headed that way.
I was eating lunch when I heard the sirens and announcements go off - first time in our 10 years of living here that they have gone off other than the first Monday of the month "test". Scared the daylights out of me. We had quite the hail right before that.

Sockeye · 05-22-2008, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McGowdog

I saw on a news crawler that the tornado that hit Windsor killed one person sofar and is heading in the direction of Ft. Collins.

Hope people can get to a basement or something.

There's temps of about 84° on our eastern border and it's about 44° along the Divide, so there's this tunnel of air coming up from the south along the front range. It looks rough into Wyoming and Idaho too.

Laramie, to be exact. Laramie looks like it's right in the center of it now. We've got something coming up from Trinidad now.

That is strange for Laramie.You usually just see dust devils around there. You're right, we've got a "perfect storm" of ingredients-a warm front and a cold front bashing into each other in an unusual location. From the looks of those pics near Windsor and FC, that brute was at least an F4-E. I'm guessing the news will be much worse on the evening news tonight, though I hope not.

denverian · 05-22-2008, 01:56 PM

I noticed that it felt humid this morning when I left for work - unusual for Denver. Not terribly humid, but noticably. I'm sure that has something to do with it since tornadoes form where cool dry and warm humid air collide.

WhereTheSidewalkEnds · 05-22-2008, 02:04 PM

Every time I decide I'm going to get out and get my run in really quick the skies turn black again and it starts raining. We're about to get it again....I wouldn't have eaten that poptart this morning if I'd had know about this weather

.

jazzlover · 05-22-2008, 02:04 PM

Based on the damage shown from the news helicopter photos, along with some wind speed reports made by the media, the tornado that hit Windsor may be more than an F2-E. My guess is an F3-E, maybe even F4-E. That is pretty darned rare in the Front Range area. The storm also moved to the northwest, skidding along the foothills up into Wyoming, and may have hammered around Laramie pretty hard. That is VERY unusual, both for the northwestward movement and the fact that Laramie sits at 7,000 feet elevation. An unusual weather day.

I will repeat what I say about Colorado climate and weather--it may be a lot of things, but benign it is not. Unpredictability and potential violence is expected.

McGowdog · 05-22-2008, 02:04 PM

It's 64° where I'm at and 22 miles south it's 50° and it looks like a bunch more is coming up from Arizona and New Mexico. I don't know if it's gonna slip off the the east of us and hit the Ark Valley or what, but this is weird.

This is a good time to pay attention to the barometer. I thought I'd seen it was like 28.9 in Denver, but can't find anything for down here.

downtownnola · 05-22-2008, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by denverian

I noticed that it felt humid this morning when I left for work - unusual for Denver. Not terribly humid, but noticably. I'm sure that has something to do with it since tornadoes form where cool dry and warm humid air collide.

I had noticed the humidity this morning on my way to work, too. When I got into the office, I checked weather.com and the Dew Point was 61. That's pretty juicy air, and gives supercell thunderstorms the fuel they need to develop. Higher humidities are not uncommon along the front range during the summertime when warm, humid air masses push up from the plains states. That is typically when we see our most severe weather here.

DOUBLE H · 05-22-2008, 02:56 PM

The latest report is 2 tornados toching down in Laramie. I'm streaming on KUSA as I am typing this. The Windsor area got clocked, including the Kodak plant. There is a lot of damage just east of the Fort St. Vrain Plant and touched down in Milliken, Gilcrest, and Platteville. Also a tornado between the Pawnee Power Plant and Akron. I worked at both of these plants from '70 to '89. Phone lines are down in a lot of the areas. I have the Weather Channel on right now and the storms are forming now between Oakley to Colby, 230 miles east of Denver, and this system is rolling at 45 to 50 m.p.h. I have lived in Colorado all my life, and have seen tornados come through here, but not like this.