The Weather Examiner is back from vacation!

June 24, 1:30 PMDenver Weather ExaminerTony Hake

Previous Next

2 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Denver Weather Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

The storm approaches!

Your intrepid Weather Examiner is back from vacation, relaxed, tanned and ready for summer!  What makes a good vacation for a weather geek?  Severe storms of course and I saw a doosy while in northeastern Colorado last week. 

Weatherwise my vacation started out pretty boring with mild days, cool nights and I suppose what most people would consider beautiful weather.  Last Friday started out much the same as the week with a calm, beautiful day on the eastern plains of Colorado but it is after all severe weather season and the chances of something brewing over a week are pretty good. 

By the mid-afternoon, more clouds started to roll in and by late afternoon, I was watching a storm cell with great potential develop to the northwest of me.  Soon the weather radio was beeping warning of a Severe Thunderstorm Watch being issued for my location and that was upgraded to a Warning before too long. 

Soon those clouds started to darken and spots of green were showing - sure signs of something major brewing.  A band of rain was clearly visible and moving our way.  A quick check of the weather radar software on my laptop showed great potential with the cloud tops exploding over 30,000 feet above.  Before long the rain started mixed with a touch of pea sized hail.  That rain got pretty heavy and the wind was getting pretty vicious.

Now we have something brewing!  5:00 in the afternoon
and it is getting very dark and the clouds have a green tint.

Being in an RV in severe weather is not always the wisest place but I was pretty confident we were okay although we did have a plan to escape to more secure shelter about 75 yards away. After dumping a good inch of rain in less than 20 minutes the storm passes. However, that same storm cell did spawn a tornado 10 miles to the southeast after it passed me. Even more notably, the cell was so powerful, it continued churning out severe weather for an additional 90+ miles before disappating!