5 Tornado's Strike Denver Area

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by crystalblue

What other natural disasters does Denver get?

I didn't even think they got tornadoes!

Blizzards, very high winds, hail storms.

[wGoshen]

Originally Posted by katenik

Where, besides a basement, qualifies as a safe place? I don't have a basement, and all this tornado and hail business is new to me.

Best place would be to hide under a stairwell.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by crystalblue

What other natural disasters does Denver get?

I didn't even think they got tornadoes!

From What I can remember, we are also the #1 location for hail in the nation.

[2bindenver]

no hurricanes, that's a huge plus!

[jazzlover]

Flash floods, thunderstorms with big (i.e., baseball-size) hail on occasion, grass and forest fires in the foothills west of town, windstorms (100 mph straight-line gusts in some places), blizzards, severe droughts--just about everything that an interior continental location can get. Most of those things happen relatively infrequently, but all of them do happen and, when bad enough, will be long-remembered.

[crystalblue]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Flash floods, thunderstorms with big (i.e., baseball-size) hail on occasion, grass and forest fires in the foothills west of town, windstorms (100 mph straight-line gusts in some places), blizzards, severe droughts--just about everything that an interior continental location can get. Most of those things happen relatively infrequently, but all of them do happen and, when bad enough, will be long-remembered.

eek!

[denverian]

Originally Posted by crystalblue

eek!

I've lived in Denver a total of 7 years and never experienced anything horrible. The tornadoes tend to be very small (F-0) and land east of the city, but can hit in the metro area. Hail is hit or miss and can be very damaging - we had a big hail storm this year, but it wasn't the entire metro area. I've never had any damage from hail personally, but it's probably the biggest risk in summer.

I've only seen one blizzard in Denver and that was in Dec. 2006. It didn't kill me - or anyone else that I'm aware of. Apparently we can get earthquakes here too, but very small ones. There were a couple last month in other parts of the state. Overall, you have a fairly small risk of catastrophic weather in Denver compared to many other parts of the country. Just don't buy a home in a ditch next to a creek!

[the3Ds]

There are very few locations in the US that are worth living in that don't have some sort of potential for catastrophe. I lived in Florida and hurricanes are a real threat...and made worse by the fact that everyone is in the same boat and potentially your entire city could be underwater and without adequate resources for weeks. Plus, having to evacuate really sucks. Arizona doesn't have huge threats of catastrophe, but try losing your air conditioning in the middle of the summer. Plus, the scorpions really freaked me out.

Denver has pretty moderate weather year round. Sure, there is the potential for a huge blizzard but when one happened a few years ago, it made national news...which means it's not that common. Tornadoes too...and something called "super cells" which happened this summer close to the mountains. It wasn't defined as a "tornado" but the damage looked exactly the same and if your windows and roof get blown off, who cares that it "technically wasn't a tornado." Hail IS a problem here and there's just not a lot you can do. We actually use our garage for our cars and not for storage so the times we had a hail storm (twice this summer) our cars were parked in the garage. That, however, was just luck. We could have been out shopping or eating and had our cars totally exposed in a parking lot.

Just as an FYI from someone who lived in the area that experienced that tornado that touched down a few miles from here (and our neighborhood got absolutely pounded with hail beforehand). Nearly every house in the neighborhood has had a roof repair/replacement. Every block has a sign outside giving credit to whatever roofing company did work. Every morning, I sit on my deck drinking coffee to the "soothing sounds" of nail guns on someone else's roof. Many homes in other subdivisions have that vinyl siding and many of those homes look as if someone took a BB gun and put dozens of little holes all over the side.

My house (and my subdivision of about 50 homes) has not had one single roof replaced. We all have cement tile roofs. I'm sure that there is something "negative" about the roofs, but at least in this situation with the huge hail and tornado winds damage, all of us were able to breathe a huge sigh of relief. We also don't have the vinyl siding and most of our homes have a roof overhang that prevented broken windows from a random piece of hail. Our neighborhood of Saddle Rock Ridge has nearly 2,000 homes. I am not an original owner but from what I can see, I believe certain homebuilders developed certain neighborhoods. Ours, for whatever reason, is the only one in the entire Ridge that has the cement tile roofs. As I said, it's also the only one without roofing signs in every yard.

Just an FYI for anyone looking to purchase a home.

[ryanswindle]

Originally Posted by wGoshen

Best place would be to hide under a stairwell.

Bathtubs are commonly reported as places people survive through serious storms, though I don't know if the newer style plasticy ones would count, I'm recalling being told to hide in them old school white ceramic/metal like ones, whatever that material is.

Ya hop in and pull a mattress over it. Now that I think about it this is a very specific thing I learned growing up, does anybody know where this came from?

Edit:
Apparently this is a common thing I didn't just pick up randomly I guess.. http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1458364.aspx

This also brings up another thing, for anyone new to tornado country and unawares, if there's a tornado in the area, you crack your windows or else they'll get blown out if it comes near due to the pressure difference.