Denver area tornado

[cheyenne]

I was wondering if any forumites were caught up in the bad weather near Denver Colorado.?

I know that Jeff Rath resides somewhere in the Denver area.....

[bassduke49]

The "Denver area" tornado was a really big one that skipped up and down and affected mostly Windsor, about 50 miles or so north of Denver, and across I-25 (I think). One killed, a driver of an SUV that apparently tried to outrun it. The weird thing about this tornado is that it was in a condition the locals call "up slope" - weather coming from the east towards the mountains. The radar pictures on the Weather Channel showed it hitting Windsor, then head northwest towards Ft. Collins (I used to live there in a previous life), but it petered out before reaching the city (I guess). Nearly all storms that spawn tornados move toward the east in some fashion, as that is the prevailing direction of storm systems. But once in a while the wrap-around of a low-pressure system will draw storms "up slope" like this. Weird. Hope no one is looking for Rickenbacker-shaped lumber.

[windchimp]

I was traveling home from Cali yesterday through that weather. We were on "short final" into DIA- wheels down, hosties strapped in, runway in sight...then BAM! wind shear. Pilot nailed the throttles to the firewall and took us out of it, pinning us in our seats and making our ScAirbus seem like a F-18! He came on about 5 minutes later and filled us in on his little maneuver and told us that we were going to orbit for a while till the weather passed. The cabin was dead quiet. Big sigh of relief when we got on the ground 1/2 hour later - still a pretty bumpy ride even then.

I don't scare easily with flight related activities but this one had me checking my underwear!

[johnallg]

Sounds scary Ross. I am a firm believer the pilot knows what he's doing and does not have a death wish. So far they've proved me right. Even with a couple "interesting" events flying. If I go down, it must have been my time. Otherwise I couldn't get on a plane - that's a long way to fall in a rock.

[rickboy88]

Yes, it was north of Denver toward Wyoming. My sister used to live in Windsor and now lives in nearby Severance. They lost power too, but got it back at 2 am. My older nephew's car was parked in Windsor and it suffered major hail damage. My cousin and her family live near Windsor High School, but I haven't heard back from them yet.

I think Jeff is in the SW Denver metro area, and I am in the NW Denver metro area (we've been meaning to get together at some point). I was talking to my State Farm agent at that time (of all things) and when I showed him how to look at the NWS radar I was amazed by the size and intensity of the storm cell up there. I'd never seen one that bad. It was a funky weather day. They think that Windsor tornado was an F3 to F4, which is quite strong for the "front range". If tornadoes do form, they tend to be east of I-25, which is the case for Windsor. It moved to the west - northwest, which is also odd.