Stormy Weather

As is usually the case with news reports, the numbers varied widely. CNN talked about the storm for longer than it lasted. One network said that up to eighteen tornadoes had touched-down, another reported a dozen. All-told, both of the local morning newscasts that I saw give the number of storms that hit Colorado yesterday as eight.

They mostly hit rural areas about twenty miles south-southwest of Denver and a couple touched down near the farming communities east of town. There are a couple reports of minor injuries due to flying debris thrown by the winds associated with the storm front but that, apart from a tree-or-two being lost to the wind, was that.

The front did have a spectacular affect on the sunset, though. The golds and reds of the fading light to the west was accompanied by that eerie green-tinted sky that I have always referred to as storm-light. Ever since I was little, I can remember the storm-light that accompanied bad thunderstorms. I am certain that it has something to do with the water content or dust content in the air playing with the light refraction, but I have never had the opportunity to suss-out exactly what storm-light is.

But it has always strangely attracted me. I like it when the sky takes on that sickly yellow-green that is almost always associated with bad weather. Perhaps it is just that I like bad weather; perhaps it is just because I am a sick and demented person. who can tell. But the storm passed, no real damage to speak of, and the Convention has resumed the top slot in all the local newscasts. (Who says there isn't stormy weather ahead? Regardless of the condition of the skies, Denver is in for four days of stormy weather!)

Wherever you are today, I hope that you are enjoying the weather there!

Don Bergquist - August 25, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA