"The One That Started It All"

Tornado outbreak Denver/Thornton CO June 3rd 1981. 

On June 3rd of 1981 I was four years old, and I remember it like it was yesterday. My family and I were at my grandmothers house in Denver CO, and I was doing what ever a four year old does. It was a beautiful Colorado day. Warm and perfect for hanging out in my grandmothers backyard. My, how that would change. Around 2:15 PM we heard the tornado sirens sounding. This was not unusual, as Denver often had tornado warnings. We quickly moved to the front room to get a better view of the situation. My aunt observed an unusual amount of trash was hovering in the air. My mom makes a very astute observation by saying "when is there a normal amount of trash in the air"? The trash was dancing in a circular pattern in the sky above Yates St. It was as if a large pot of stew was being stirred with a giant ladle. I had never seen anything like this. I was in awe. The debris continued to grow larger and more prevalent. The sky grew a off shade of emerald green. At the tender age of four, even I knew this was not a normal storm. At this point we made the decision to move everyone to the cellar. I was scared.....but I was oddly intrigued. No, this was not Mr Twister's first tornado siting. My mother grabbed me like a football, and ran to the cellar like a fullback. This was no easy task, as my grandmother's cellar was very small and there was seven of us. It was dark, it was loud and it was over quick. We emerged shaken, but we were ok. I did not see a tornado...I don't even think I saw a nasty cloud, but this started my fascination with weather. How could such a wonderful summer day turn so dangerous, so quick? How could a blue sky turn green? As we surveyed the damage, we realized the tornado missed Yates by a block. The damage was substantial, and several buildings a  tenth of a mile to the West were destroyed. This period was very volatile for Denver weather, as the following year, the Christmas blizzard of 1982 would bury Denver. From that point on, I decided I wanted to follow weather. I would wait on my roof for storms to form near the foothills of Denver. I would create my own weather maps, and I would track cold fronts as they marched across the country. I would cut paper clippings of any event related to weather..creating my own weather log. To this day, I have an insatiable passion for weather, and now I have all this neat technology to share my adventures with you. Attached is a brilliant study of that infamous day in Denver weather. Mr Twister

Denver Tornado's of 1982