Tornado Warning at DIA!
 

Denver is currently sheltering all people in the terminal for a tornado....first for me.

Pics on-line show a smallish tornado, north of here.

They had one a couple of years ago, I sat through it at the main terminal under the tee-pee canopy. Made me wonder how strong the tarp material is on the structure. Denver often gets extra storm cells in summer due to thermals created by the city.

Tornado Warning at DIA!
 

Stay away from employee parking please!:)

Well, there's always the unstable lapse rates/marfa front condition that exists as well. Never mind the plains/farmland that exist right by the airport or on the arrival/departure gates.

One of the many "scandalous" things floating around when the airport was being planned was it's geographic location and the potential side affects of meteorological conditions that are unique to the area.

Looks like 2 touched down in the Denver area.

You don't think the being on the front range of the Rocky Mts has anything to do with it? :rolleyes:

Probably even more than the thermals the city generates some days, but you can see pop up air mass thunderstorms on the lee side of many large US cities without nearby mountains, so it's probably both of these effects. I'd be interested to hear what the local metereologists say.

Generally speaking and having been living on the front range and having been flying out of DIA for the last 14 years. These big storms are orographic in nature. They start building on the Rockies usually at about 1100 to 1300. at about 1400 to about 1700 they move off the spine of the mountains and head towards the plains.

You've got the worlds longest North South mountain range sitting 30 miles west of DIA. You've got hot desert air that blows over those mountains from the west. Do the math. If the city of Denver has an effect on local weather it is extremely minor and insignificant compared to the mega Colorado weather maker called the rocky mountains.

Ok, but both effects are there and both are visible in the summer radar feeds. Someone said the airport location is not very good, Stapleton would seem to be better for avoiding the smaller city-derived storm cells.

I'm not a meteorologist, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But somewhere I have a piece of paper from a college (in that area) that has some words resembling Meteorology on it. Plus I did all my flight training in the area.

As Hoss said, you'd have the EXACT SAME conditions on the plains even if the city wasn't there.