Welcome June in Denver! A month that acts like summer most of the time, but isn’t afraid to show its brooding spring sneer whenever it feels like it, usually delivering those blows in the form of thunderstorms and hail.
Like most of spring, June is a month of transition. It is a month that lies between the cool rains of May and the warm rains of the monsoon season. Warm moisture from the Gulf will occasionally battle cold fronts, creating periods of instability, thunderstorms, hail, and sometimes tornadoes.
The month may see the most intense severe weather of the year, according to the National Weather Service. Tornado season also heats up during June. But let’s put the statistics aside.
June is the third warmest month of the year in the city, behind July and August. Denver’s average monthly temperature for June is 67.4 degrees, based on averages from 1981 to 2010. We started the month with an average high of 77 degrees and ended it an average of 10 degrees warmer. The hottest it’s ever been in June was 105 degrees for two days in a row in 2012!
KMGH
Temperatures can drop below freezing, but it is very rare. The coldest recorded June temperature in Denver was 30 degrees on June 2, 1951. But we average 48 degrees at the beginning and 56 degrees towards the end of the month as far as low temperatures go.
Coming off what is considered the wettest month of the year, May, the sixth month of the year precedes what is considered the second wettest month of the year in Denver, July. We tend to see a lot of moisture in the form of severe storms during June, after all the severe weather season is in full force.
The average monthly rainfall is 1.98 inches. The wettest June we saw in Denver was in 1882, when 4.96 inches of moisture fell on the city. And more recently, in 20009, we got 4.69 inches of moisture. But our driest June ever occurred in 1916 when only 0.08 inches of rain fell in Denver for the entire month.
KMGH
And do you remember the snow? It can happen, but it is also a very rare event. Snow has occurred just seven times in June in Denver since 1882 with the last occurrence in 1974 with a trail, according to the NWS. The Mile High City’s snowiest June occurred in 1953 when a total of 0.5 inches fell for the entire month.
severe weather season
As mentioned above, June may be the most unforgiving month weather-wise for Denver. Severe thunderstorms with large hail, damaging wind gusts, heavy rain, and strong tornadoes are common during the sixth month of the year.
Colorado is entering peak tornado season. The state sees an average of 27 tornadoes during May and June, with June being the busiest month with an average of 17 tornadoes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There have been 2,125 recorded tornado events in Colorado and at least five tornado-related deaths since 1950.
The most tornado-prone county in Colorado, and in the entire country, is Weld County, which has seen 268 tornadoes since 1950. The city and county of Denver have seen 16 tornadoes in the same period.
The largest tornado event to hit Denver was on June 15, 1988. Seven people were injured when an F-3 tornado touched down in the southern part of the city, cutting an erratic path 2.5 miles long. The storm damaged 85 buildings and several cars and uprooted trees.
The injuries were minor, but according to NWS reports, very traumatic for some of those involved. A golfer was thrown 40 feet but was not injured. A man clinging to a telephone pole was uninjured but lost both shoes. A woman holding a baby was sucked through a broken convenience store window, but neither the woman nor the baby was injured.
Tornado activity does not always occur in the usual places in Colorado. Although extremely rare, tornadoes and funnel clouds have been observed on the West Slope and in high-altitude areas. There have been three tornado landings in Park County, occurring on June 8, 2014, August 18, 2009, and August 23, 2008. In 2011, a tornado was documented in Mount Evans with an elevation of 11,900 feet. And on June 20, 1975, an F2 tornado touched down in Pitkin County.
Damaging hail is also a concern in June. Storms can produce hail up to the diameter of a fully grown grapefruit. In a typical season, which is from mid-April to mid-August, the Front Range sees about three or four catastrophic hailstorms, according to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.
Colorado, along with Nebraska and Wyoming, forms what meteorologists call “hail alley.” The area averages seven to nine hail days per year. According to the National Severe Storms Laboratory, the reason this area gets so much hail is that freezing levels (the area of the atmosphere at or below 32 degrees) in the high plains are much closer to the ground than they are at sea level. sea. , where the hail has a long time to melt before reaching the ground.
RMIIA
Hail is usually the size of a pea or marble, but large thunderstorms can produce large hail. Baseball-sized hail hit parts of Golden and Lakewood during a record-setting storm in 2017.
According to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, Colorado had the second highest number of hail claims in the US from 2013 to 2015 (182,591), second only to Texas. The costliest hail storm to hit Colorado was on May 8, 2017. The Denver metro area suffered $2.3 billion in insured losses.
Prepare for severe weather
Be prepared for severe weather when it hits. Follow these tips provided by the Colorado Office of Emergency Management:
- Assemble an emergency kit and create a family communication plan.
- Identify a place of safe shelter: a basement is best, followed by interior rooms on the lowest level of the building away from windows. Mobile homes are often unsafe in a tornado: identify a neighbor’s house or a public shelter where you can go if a tornado warning is issued.
- Secure outdoor objects that could fly or cause damage during a storm.
- Unplug any electronic equipment before the storm hits.
- Get a NOAA Weather Radio (link is external) to receive alerts of impending severe weather.
- Sign up for reverse phone alerts (link is external) for your county and don’t forget to include your cell phone.
- Make sure you have enough insurance coverage, including flood insurance, which is separate from your homeowners or renters policy.
- Photograph or videotape the contents of your home in case you need to file a claim after a disaster.
- Keep copies of your important documents somewhere else, like a bank safe deposit box.
Publisher’s note: Denver7 360 | In depth explores multiple aspects of the issues that matter most to Coloradans, bringing different perspectives so you can make your own decisions about issues. To comment on this or other 360 In-Depth stories, email us at [email protected] or use this form. See more 360 | Detailed stories here.
Reference-www.thedenverchannel.com