A 'cold air funnel' was spotted over Leadville, Colorado on Sunday morning. (NWS Pueblo)
At an altitude nearly two miles high, one would not expect a funnel cloud to appear in the sky over a town like Leadville, Colorado. On Sunday however, Mother Nature treated visitors and residents to a rare ‘cold air funnel’ over the town high in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.
At approximately 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, the funnel was spotted over Leadville where it continued to rotate for nearly 20 minutes, according to observers. The funnel never touched down, thus never becoming a tornado, but it serves as a reminder that twisters can occur just about anywhere on earth.
Funnel clouds and tornadoes typically need four conditions to form – Shear, Lift, Instability and Moisture (SLIM as famed storm chaser Roger Hill calls it). With a cold air funnel, those conditions also exist, although they aren’t associated with a supercell thunderstorm like is seen on the plains.
According to the National Weather Service’s Pueblo office, a cold low pressure system over northwestern Colorado provided the instability part of the equation. Strong upper level winds over the southwestern part of the state and slower winds over the northwest provided shear. The difference in lower and upper level temperatures and a passing thunderstorm provided the lift and moisture for the funnel.
One Denver-area television station is incorrectly reporting on its website that “Leadville was never in any danger because he says cold-air funnels do not turn into tornadoes.”
This is wholly inaccurate. While cold air funnels do not typically touch down, they can reach the ground and as the National Weather Service states, they “can bring damage in a small area.”
This funnel cloud was seen on Tuesday from the Thornton Civic Center (looking north). Image courtesy the City of Thornton.
Severe weather has returned to the Denver metro area and the Front Range Tuesday afternoon. At approximately 4:50pm and for nearly one half hour afterwards trained spotters reported numerous funnel clouds over the Northglenn, Thornton, and Broomfield areas. No tornadoes touched down however.
Do you have pictures of the severe weather? Email them info@thorntonweather.com and we will post them.
At 5:11pm local law enforcement reported a tornado four miles northwest of Firestone moving at 20mph. This area remains under a Tornado Warning until 5:00pm.
If you are in an area under a Tornado Warning, do not try to outrun the storm or chase it in your vehicle. Immediately seek shelter in a building. If no structure is available, seek shelter in a ditch or low spot. If in your home or other building go to an interior hallway or ideally the basement.
This funnel cloud, one of many across the metro area Sunday, was spotted over Highlands Ranch. Image courtesy Tracee Hendershott.
Thus far the weather today has been much quieter than it was yesterday when thunderstorms brought severe weather to most of the metro area. Southern Thornton has seen a good bit of rain but areas farther north have had very little.
Earlier today, local law enforcement did report a funnel cloud over 104th and Colorado Blvd from a thunderstorm that was moving through the area. Reported at 12:47pm, the funnel moved to the east at 15 mph and quickly disappated. Unlike yesterday when many funnel clouds – and three tornadoes – were reported, this is the only such report thus far today.
Do you have pictures of this weekend’s severe weather? Send them to info@thorntonweather.com and we will show them on our site!
This funnel cloud was over north central Aurora Saturday afternoon. Photo was taken from the Bennett area.
Saturday afternoon’s thunderstorms brought some pretty interesting weather to Denver and the Front Range. Our wettest and cloudiest month seems to be intent on finishing out right on par with what we would expect this time of year.
Thunderstorms and showers moved across the metro area in the late afternoon Saturday producing thunder, lightning and rain across much of the area. Some stations on the Rocky Mountain Weather Network reported quite heavy rain, particularly those on the west side of town. Some of the rain totals along the Front Range since yesterday:
In yesterday’s forecast we warned of the possibility of landspouts which are small, short-lived tornadoes. None were observed however a funnel cloud was reported over north central Aurora about three miles south of DIA at 4:50pm. The funnel lasted about two minutes and never touched down and did not cause any damage.
Quite an eventful time we have had over the last 72 hours or so in terms of weather. Some of the more noteworthy items:
The streak ends. With cooler air finally moving into Colorado, Tuesday, August 5th marked the last day of our streak of 90 degree or higher temperatures. Wednesday the temperature reached 88 degrees at DIA thus breaking the heat wave and ending the streak at a record 24 days. The previous record of 18 days was last set 107 years ago in 1901! Click here to view the official statistics for the streak. Here at ThorntonWeather.com, our streak wasn’t quite as long. While the official streak dates back to July 12th, Thornton did have one day – July 17th – where the temperature “only” reached 88 degrees. If we start counting for Thornton on the 18th, that would put the Thornton streak at 17 days. But, let’s face it, “hot is hot” no matter how you look at it!
A racoon takes shelter in a storm drain at 120th & Colorado Blvd. Image courtesy 9News.com.
Record seting rainstorm on Wednesday, August 6th. As we discussed in our previous entry, severe weather moved across the Front Range bringing everything from thunder and lightning to funnel clouds and tornadoes to severe rain. Various watches / warnings were issued including Tornado Warnings, Flash Flood Warnings / Watches and more. Rain totals varied across the metro area with Thornton, particularly the northeast portions of the city, receiving the lion’s share. At ThorntonWeather.com, we measured a whopping 2.43″. The vast majority of that fell in a 70 minute time span from 6:00pm to 7:10pm. Rain rates were reading between 3″ and 7″ per hour during that timeframe! That is ThorntonWeather.com’s #1 rainiest day on record since going into service in October 2006; the previous record was 2.2″ set on April 24, 2007. Some street flooding was reported in Thornton but thankfully little real damage. At DIA they recorded 1.29″ of rain, breaking the old record for the date of 1.1″ set in 1929.
Cooler weather to prevail today. Significant moisture in the atmosphere and cooler temperatures should keep the excitement level down today – at least compared to yesterday. After noon there will be a chance for rain and those that do get rain can expect it to be heavy at times. As long as the temperatures stay down, we shouldn’t have the severity that we experienced yesterday though. Click here to view the latest forecast.
Be safe, use your head, pay attention! A bit of a report from the soapbox today. As we were looking at pictures of the storm on various news sites, we came across one submitted to 9News from a Thornton resident of children playing in the street in the rain. Now, that makes for a wonderfully fun picture and I am sure the kids had fun too but we do question how smart the parents were of these kids. At the time Thornton was getting hit with the storm, lightning was popping across the entire area and there was a Tornado Warning issued as funnel clouds had been spotted. Is outside playing in the street really where kids should be in a case like this? That fun would come to a quick end if lightning struck or worse yet, one of those funnel clouds developed into a tornado. Is that little bit of fun worth the risk of losing your child? THINK ABOUT IT! It may be worthwhile to review our Weather Education Series on Lightning and Tornadoes.
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