Who doesn't love some extreme weather?

So here are some storm clouds that moved in around my office. They came in... real fast. And real dark. (They kicked the streetlights on!)
There was also a lot of rotation in the ones closest.


And isn't THIS a fun alert to get pushed through?

BASEBALL?

We did not actually get baseball sized hail near us; we got mostly pea- to marble-sized, with a few bigger ones more like jawbreakers.

But our senior instructor (on his second-to-last day!) DID encounter baseball-sized hail! It shattered the back window of the car! Fun! (Everyone was okay, but it wasn't an enjoyable experience.)

Alex told me the tornado sirens nearer our apartment went off, though it was just a hail warning, wanting to make sure people got off the street and inside if at all possible.


And then there *was* a tornado warning, though for a neighboring area.

Highlands Ranch is a snooty mostly-wealthy area, and very much a city.

While Colorado has the highest number of tornadoes in the country (Weld county, my college county, represent), those tornadoes are almost always out on the plains, and rarely cause a lot of destruction or threaten many people. Having one touch down in a city is scary.



The track of the storm came worrying close to an office I used to work at. I did finally get in touch with our office down there and found out everyone was fortunately okay.

The preliminary designation is that it was "only" an EF-1, with top wind speed of 97mph. At the time it was on the ground, the estimations were for 114mph, which is a significant difference, and would put it at EF-2. We'll see if they revise their assessment. Fortunately, while there's a lot of damage, there are so far no fatalities that have been reported.