Ominous, bruise-colored clouds and volatile weather menaced the metro area and the Eastern Plains on Thursday afternoon but largely spared the region the whuppin’ that the scowling clouds seemed to portend.
But that might not be the case for the next several days, as June is a time for severe weather in Colorado, and the forecast is for more afternoon storms. Conditions in eastern Colorado are ripe for tornadoes, as winds, temperatures and humidity reach ideal levels for tornado-spawning thunderstorms, weather researchers said Thursday.
Throughout Thursday afternoon, tornado warnings hopscotched from remote parts of eastern Adams County to Morgan County to Washington and Elbert counties, as storm watchers reported funnel clouds and possible tornadoes, along with large hail. As of early Thursday evening, there were no reports of tornado damage.
The National Weather Service did receive reports of broken windows and damaged crops on the Eastern Plains, and had reports of softball- size hail near Limon and in Washington County.
Parts of the metro area were hit with smaller hail and heavy rain, according to the Weather Service. But no agency – Denver International Airport, the Colorado State Patrol, the Denver Public Works Department or a handful of sheriff’s offices – reported any major problems.
“It was fast-moving,” said Patty Weiss, a spokeswoman for Denver Public Works. “It moved out, and there was no flooding we were aware of with this storm. We will have crews on tonight who will take calls if there are any problems. But so far it’s just a normal rainstorm for our crews.”
At DIA, officials issued a lightning warning early in the afternoon, and the airport was hit with heavy rain and small hail, but the weather didn’t cause serious delays, said airport spokesman Chuck Cannon.
This spring’s tornado season, which so far has been less active, may be poised to take off, said Joshua Wurman, a tornado expert with the Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder.
“We had a kind of blocked pattern with stationary, persistent weather, but that pattern is breaking down and … we’re getting a pretty good setup,” Wurman said on a cellphone from western Kansas, where he was watching skies for storms and chasing clouds that could spawn tornadoes.
Wurman and his colleagues are putting their sophisticated mobile Doppler system in place as close as possible to track the funnel clouds.
They’re hoping that detailed Doppler images of tornadoes, snapped every few seconds instead of the usual minute or two, will help them understand precisely how and where tornadoes form.
“It lets us see a lot more detail – it’s like if you look across the parking lot at someone’s hand, you can barely see the fingers, but if you get up close, you can see fingerprints.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.