ThorntonWeather.com has been featured on the City of Thornton’s cable access channel show Thornton 360. The interview which was conducted in June 2009 features the site’s chief amateur meteorologist Tony Hake discussing the features of ThorntonWeather.com, his interest in the weather and more.
Be sure to check out the video below and let us know what you think. You can also watch it on channel 8 throughout the month of September if you have Comcast cable TV.
ThorntonWeather.com would like to thank the City of Thornton’s Communications Department for their work. Oftentimes we forget how many people it takes to make a city of over 100,000 residents run as well as Thornton does and the city’s employees continually perform above and beyond!
The Climate Change Examiner is the place for a complete look at climate change, global warming and the environment.
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Climate Change Examiner! ThorntonWeather.com’s chief amateur meteorologist has been with Examiner.com since the day they launched in 2008 as the Denver Weather Examiner. Starting immediately Tony will also be Examiner.com’s Climate Change Examiner focusing specifically on one of the hottest topics of today (pun intended).
We have discussed climate change and global warming extensively in these pages and in the Denver Weather Examiner and will continue to do so as residents of Colorado are as concerned about climate change as anyway. However, the Climate Change Examiner will cover the topic much more frequently and with greater depth.
Is man the driving factor in global warming? Or is it something else, like the sun, as other say? What are the political issues in this debate? In a fragile economy, how can we afford to do what some say needs to be done? How will a changing climate impact humans and our life on the planet?
The Climate Change Examiner will look at both sides of the issues. I firmly believe that knowledge is key in order to make an educated opinion about any issue and that includes listening to those you are inclined to believe and those you are not. We must understand all sides of the issue if we are to make the right decisions not only for today and the immediate future but also for our longtime survivability.
So let’s begin that journey down the road of greater understanding and with that knowledge, gain an appreciation for Mother Earth and hopefully make the right decisions for her and for us! Check back tomorrow on the Climate Change Examiner’s pages for the start of a series of articles laying out the basics of climate change.
September 27 to October 3 - This week in Denver weather history
With the end of summer and the arrival of fall, looking back at Denver weather history we start to see more mentions of snow. It is of course not the only notable weather event this time of year. We still have received severe thunderstorms, damaging winds, and 90 degree plus heat.
From the National Weather Service:
From the 25th to the 27th:
in 1996…an early season snowstorm brought heavy snow to the Front Range eastern foothills. Snowfall totals included: 8 to 12 inches around Conifer…7 inches on Floyd Hill…and 6 inches at both bailey and Chief Hosa. Snowfall totaled only 4.7 inches at the site of the former Stapleton International Airport. This was the first measurable snow of the season. After the passage of a strong cold front…north winds gusted to 38 mph at Denver International Airport on the 25th.
From the 26th to the 28th:
In 1936…the heaviest snowfall ever recorded in September and the heaviest snowfall ever recorded so early in the season dumped a total of 16.5 inches of snow on downtown Denver and 21.3 inches at Denver municipal airport. The 15.0 inches of snow measured from 6:00 pm on the 27th to 6:00 pm on the 28th is the greatest 24 hour snowfall ever recorded in September. This was the first snow of the season. The snow was intermittent through the 26th…but continuous from early afternoon on the 27th to around midnight on the 28th…except for a period of rain during the afternoon of the 28th which contributed to a loss of depth on the ground. The greatest snow depth on the ground downtown was 13 inches with 8 inches at Denver municipal airport. There were no high winds with the storm and traffic was interrupted for only a short period. The storm produced property damage estimated at 7 million dollars. With trees and shrubs in full foliage…the leaves caught and held the heavy water-laden snow…until the branches snapped from the weight. More than 3000 workmen were called to remove the debris and snow from the city. The city firemen who were off duty…as well as all the reserves… Were asked to report to their stations. All schools in the city remained open…but attendance was only 50 percent of normal. Grade school students were sent home at noon on the 28th. The early storm caught stockmen with many cattle still in higher ranges. Warm weather followed the snow…which had all melted by the end of the month…except for a few inches in sheltered places.
On the 27th:
In 1877…smoke from heavy forest fires in the mountains spread over the city on upper wind currents.
In 1935…the first snow of the season was 2.8 inches in downtown Denver. The low temperature dipped to 31 degrees for the first freeze of the season.
This funnel cloud was seen from the Thornton Civic Center (looking north) on June 10th. Image courtesy Lisa Wilson, the City of Thornton.
As summer 2009 comes to a close, it is perhaps most fitting that fall arrives with nearly winter-like weather. We ushered in the summer a month early with a record setting high temperature and soon followed that up with a near constant stream of severe weather for weeks. In fact, most of the events during what was a very active summer season actually occurred in the weeks leading up to the official start of summer.
Even though the official start of summer was a month away, May 19th seemed to be an unofficial start as the mercury climbed to 90 degrees that day setting a new record for the date. The very next day in perhaps what was a sign of things to come, a tornado touched down in Mesa County – only the ninth to strike in that county since 1950.
After a couple weeks of relative calm, the severe weather once again appeared and on June 7th funnel clouds and tornadoes seemed to be appearing everywhere. From the north metro area in Broomfield to Aurora, most of the Front Range had some sort of direct severe weather threat. Most notably,the Southlands Shopping Center was struck by an EF1 tornado where extensive damage to the mall occurred.
A washed out bridge is shown Monday, Sept. 21, 2009 in Douglasville, Ga. Heavy rain caused flooding in and around the Atlanta area. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
The governor of Georgia issued a state of emergency on Tuesday morning as the death toll from flooding in the area continued to climb. Some areas near Atlanta reported up to 20 inches of rain in recent days as creeks and rivers ran over their banks flooding entire communities and even sending the Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park under water (see slideshow on Examiner.com).
Adding to the tally of lives lost was a 15-year-old boy whose body was found in the Chattooga River Tuesday morning. In a heart wrenching story, in Carroll County, Georgia a 2-year-old boy perished when he was ripped from his father’s arms as the father struggled against floodwaters.
September 20 to September 26 - This week in Denver weather history
Looking back at this week in Denver history we start to see more of the signs that summer is coming to an end and fall and winter are right around the corner. Summer-like severe weather can still occur but we also start to see more cold temperatures and occasions with snow become more prevelant.
From the National Weather Service:
20
In 1921…an apparent Bora produced northwest winds sustained to 44 mph with gusts to 64 mph.
In 1955…hail stones 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter were reported across parts of the city of Denver.
In 1992…weather observers at Buckley Air National Guard base sighted two tornados southeast of the base. The tornados were short-lived and caused no injuries or damage.
20-21
In 1963…heavy rain and hail caused local flooding in southeast Denver. Thunderstorm rainfall was only 0.60 inch at Stapleton Airport on the 20th.
In 1983…the cold front on the 19th brought an unusually cold air mass into metro Denver for so early in the season. The temperature dipped to a daily record minimum of 28 degrees on both days.
In 1995…a vigorous late summer storm brought the season’s first heavy snow to portions of metro Denver. Millions of trees were damaged and power lines downed as 4 to 8 inches of heavy wet snow settled on fully leafed trees in the Boulder and Denver areas. Branches snapped and trees split under the weight of heavy snow…downing power lines. Firefighters responded to numerous transformer fires. Around 100 thousand people were left without electricity in Boulder and Denver areas alone. It took over a week to fully restore power to some areas. Insurance claims were estimated to be around 6 million dollars to homes in metro Denver and about 500 thousand dollars in damage to automobiles. It was estimated that about 80 percent of 125 million dollars worth of city owned trees in Denver were damaged. Snowfall totaled 7.4 inches at the site of the former Stapleton International Airport where the greatest depth of snow on the ground was only 4 inches due to melting. Temperature records were set on the 21st when the thermometer dipped to a record low reading of 27 degrees and climbed to a high of only 36 degrees… Setting a record low maximum for the date. North winds gusted to 29 mph at Denver International Airport on the 20th.
Hundreds of weather balloons like this are released daily by the National Weather Service. (NOAA)
A 12-year-old boy reportedly received a bit of a shock when he touched a National Weather Service balloon that had landed near Niver Creek Middle School in Thornton. The balloons which are launched twice daily from the old Stapleton International Airport facility and other locations across the nation are essential instruments for forecasters.
The boy complained of numbness in his hands after touching it and school officials called the fire department as they were unsure what the device was. Upon closer inspection they read the labels that said the unit belonged to the National Weather Service and was a weather instrument. The boy was transported to a hospital as a precaution and his father told Channel 7 Wednesday morning that he was fine.
Weather balloons are launched daily from 102 locations across the United States, Caribbean and Pacific and are essential forecasting instruments (see below for a map of sites in the contiguous United States). The six foot diameter balloons are launched twice daily and simultaneously at all the sites at midnight UTC and noon UTC (5:00am MDT and 5:00pm MDT). Once launched, the units can attain an altitude of 115,000 feet and travel up to 200 miles before they burst and fall harmlessly to the ground.
Called a radiosonde, the balloon’s payload measures air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind direction and wind speed. The data is transmitted in real time to receivers on the ground which is then fed into National Weather Service computers and monitored by forecasters. Information obtained by the units is essential for forecasters to evaluate and predict atmospheric conditions for forecasting, severe weather alerting and more.
A massive thunderstorm 1,900 miles wide lasting more than 9 months is occuring on Saturn.
A thunderstorm that would encompass an area from San Francisco to the Mississippi River was recorded on Saturn. The storm, recorded by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, has lasted an amazing 9 months so far and became a record setter for the longest lightning storm recorded in the solar system. The previous longest storm duration was 7 ½ months, also set on Saturn, between November 2007 and July 2008.
Scientists speaking at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) said instruments onboard Cassini recorded the storms that are 10,000 times more powerful than lightning storms on Earth. This record breaking storm is the ninth that the spacecraft has recorded on Saturn since it arrived at the planet in July 2004.
Saturn is well known for its severe thunderstorms that usually occur in an area scientists have dubbed ‘Storm Alley’ – something akin to Tornado Alley in the central United States although much bigger in area and the storms are much more powerful. The area on Saturn lies 35 degrees south of Saturn’s equator and scientists aren’t entirely sure why this area is a hot bed for activity.
A funnel cloud near Thornton on Sunday, June 7, 2009. Knowing where to get information on developing weather could save your life. Image courtesy John Wagner, Warrior Legacy Foundation.
We recently updated our weather links page (available from the menu at the left) with dozens more links to a wide array of weather related website. From sites that provide statistical information and historical data to ones where you can become your own weather forecaster, we have it all.
Certainly weather is one of the things that every single person on the globe has in common. It can impact almost every aspect of our daily lives in a myriad of ways. It can make or break that outdoor event, determine whether or not the kids have school today and most notably it can change lives in an instant when it turns severe.
Knowing where to find information about weather can help to educate, inform and possibly save lives – possibly even your own. We have accumulated this extensive list of Internet resources devoted to weather topics on everything from climatology to tropical weather and winter weather.
Highlighting the cooler summer, thousands of record low temperatures were experienced in July 2009. (NCDC)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced this week that the summer of 2009 was the 34th coolest since 1895. Covering the months from June to August for the contiguous United States, the average temperature was 0.4 degrees below the 20th century average.
Emphasizing the lower temperatures experienced in the United States over the summer, a closer look at the statistics provides some telling information.
Over the three month period, stations reporting to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) showed 2,254 daily record low temperatures and 1,296 low temperature records were tied according to preliminary data. Similarly, 4,051 daily record low maximums were recorded and 1,501 records were tied across the nation during the summer.
July in particular was notably cooler than normal and the single month by itself counted for roughly half of the records set across the three month summer. For the month, 2,212 record low maximum temperatures were recorded and 737 were tied. 1,225 new record low temperatures were recorded and 657 records were tied.
ThorntonWeather.com has been featured on the City of Thornton’s cable access channel show Thornton 360. The interview which was conducted in June 2009 features the site’s chief amateur meteorologist Tony Hake discussing the features of ThorntonWeather.com, his interest in the weather and more.
