Sunday, June 21, 2009

The longest day of the year

In a previous blog about the Summer Solstice (June 20, 11:45 PM), I mentioned that the only area of the earth where the sun can EVER be directly overhead is between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Since Colorado Springs and Pueblo aren't in the Tropics, even on the longest day of the year, the sun won't be directly overhead, but it WILL be as high in the sky as it's going to get.

With that in mind, here are the "length of day" and "how high in the sky was the sun?" statistics for June 21 in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

Colorado Springs:
Hours of Daylight: 14 hours, 54 minutes
Maximum height of the sun at noon: 74 degrees

Pueblo:
Hours of Daylight: 14 hours, 51 minutes
Maximum height of the sun at noon: 75 degrees.

For MUCH more information about sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, etc. here's an outstanding Web site..http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

Enjoy!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Summer Solstice 2009

At 11:45 PM MDT, we officially hit the summer solstice, and summer begins. Here are a few "gee whiz" things about the solstice..

1) The word solstice comes from the latin "sol" for sun and "sistit", which means to stand. For several days before and after each solstice, the noontime elevation doesn't change much, and the sun appears to "stand still" in the sky.

2) At noon on the date of the solstice, the sun is directly overhead at the tropic of Cancer (23 1/2 degrees north). The only place on Earth the sun can be directly overhead is between 23 1/2 degrees north and 23 1/2 degrees south. For the rest of us, the sun is always at some angle, but for the northern hemisphere, the sun is as high in the sky as it's going to get. (For Colorado Springs, it's a bit more than 70 degrees above the horizon).

3) The solstice represents the longest day and the shortest night of the year.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Denver tornadoes, southern Colorado winds

Cooler air began to slip into eastern Colorado on Sunday, 6/7/09, and the results were dramatic in the northern part of the state. At least 5 tornadoes were reported. One hit the Southlands Mall in Aurora. One tornado was reported 6 miles east of Lafayette, one south of Bennett; one south of Deer Trail and one north of Byers.

In addition the storms were strong enough to produce hail the size of baseballs in Arapahoe county.

The severe storms (and much of the cool air) avoided southern Colorado through Sunday afternoon, but the wind didn't. Some of the stronger gust reports are below.
Colorado Springs: 47 mph
Pueblo: 46 mph
Monarch Pass: 76 mph
Limon: 52 mph
La Veta Pass 49 mph
Canon City: 46 mph
La Junta 43 mph
Pueblo West 42 mph.

Temperatures across Colorado today ranged from 89 in Lamar and Springfield to 29 degrees in Leadville.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

The Limon tornado and snowflakes in June

Today, (June 6th) is the anniversary of the Limon Tornado of 1990. A series of severe storms produced as many as 9 tornadoes that night east and southeast of Denver, one of them tearing across Limon at approximately 8:10 pm. It was officially classified as an "F3" tornado on the Fujita scale.

It left about $12 million in damages behind, with few injuries and no fatalities.

On to the weather today...while southern Colorado was warm and breezy, Dickenson, North Dakota started out with several inches of snow, and more snow is expected tonight and tomorrow morning. While many of us think of North Dakota as being a consistently cold place (and if you've ever been there in the summer, you KNOW it isn't), it's been 60 years since the snowflakes have flown in June. Some of that colder air is moving towards Colorado, and you'll experience it on Monday.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Pueblo's Great Flood of 1921

As we move from late Spring toward early Summer and severe thunderstorms and tornadoes return to southern Colorado, as devestating as most may be, they're insignificant in comparison to Pueblo's great flood of 1921.

A powerful storm to the west of the city sent a wall of water over 10 feet high into the city.

In town, the flood level was over 18 feet.

Over 1/3 of the businesses and numerous buildings were destroyed, 100s of people drowned, and over 400 railroad cars were destroyed. Many were found downstream.

It's a good time for a reminder that Flash Floods are the greatest weather-related killer in this country, so when a flash flood warning is issued, get to high ground immediately.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Cloud to ground or ground to cloud?

It's a question we often get concerning lightning, and the answer is "yes". Here's why.

As a thunderstorm builds, and the electrical potential between the cloud and the ground increases, lightning results to drain off the electrical energy.

The initial stroke is from the cloud to the ground. It's called the "step-leader". This invisible channel heads downwards, looking for a place to make contact with the earth. It tends to connect with the tallest object in the vicinity.

After the connection has been made, the "return stroke" or "return flash" is the result. It goes from the ground to the cloud, and is the bright ribbon you see in the sky...so the final answer is, th lightning process goes from the cloud to the ground and from the ground to the cloud, but the part you see is from the ground to the cloud.