I'm no weather expert, but it seems to me that we go through two periods of tornado danger each year: once at the beginning of summer and once at the end of summer.  Not being from a place with tornadoes, I'm not half as vigilant as I should be.  My mother in California is better at keeping an eye on the weather in my area than I am.  Dark thunderheads will be looming on the horizon, the winds will be tearing apart the trees, and I'll be piddling around the house trying to plan supper.  That's about the time Roy or my mother will call and tell me that I need to turn on the radio to listen for storm or tornado warnings.  First though, I'll go to the back door thinking it's perfectly nice weather and I'll see for myself how nasty it has become outside while the dog rushes in the door to hide from thunder and wind.  Now please don't think I'm dumb.  In my defense the weather here can turn on a dime.  It probably was very nice the last time I looked out.  That's why it is so important to check the weather, watch the horizon, and listen to the radio as often as possible. 

It's hard to imagine, but tornadoes can be sneaky!  The first year after I moved here a young woman in southern Colorado was cooking supper, unaware of any tornado danger, when a tornado tore through her house and threw her into a tree (sadly she did not survive, but the rest of her family did).  The problem is that tornadoes form on the front of a storm.  That's where the air temperatures and pressures are meeting and mixing.  Its not like you get the thunder, lightning, hail, rain, and THEN the tornado.  No, no.  Those rascal storms send the most dangerous part first.  Of course, if you're a vigilant person (unlike myself) you will hear the thunder off in the distance, see the trees blowing around and turn on your radio!  Luckily the likelihood of being hit by a tornado is low, so the next danger to worry about is hail.  Now, we had hail in CA, but I've never really been concerned by it.  My first summer here, there was a day when the weather was warm and windy, but not too bad.  Roy seemed anxious about the weather, but I wasn't sure why.  A storm built off in the west and the wind picked up.  He got rather uptight and moved the cars under some trees because we didn't have shelter at that time.  He mentioned something about hail, but I just pish-poshed that danger and went on with whatever I was doing.  Suddenly Roy was grabbing me and shuffling me to the basement, along with the dog and cat.  I was so baffled until I heard the hammering begin.  For several minutes it sounded like rocks raining down on our house.  Outside the little basement windows I could see white balls, some as big as golf balls, bouncing and piling on the ground.  Finally it stopped and we made our way upstairs.  Roy was relieved to find that none of the windows were broken.  However, after the storm passed, a walk outside revealed a lot of damage.  Our steel roof was dented, our siding was broken in several places, all of our cars were badly banged up, and my windshield was shattered.  I will never doubt the potential damage of hail again.

Funnel clouds forming = potential tornadoes

This topic comes up now because we've recently had several weeks of storms with hail and tornadoes throughout Colorado.  Thankfully, our area hasn't been hit by tornadoes, but a few nights ago a hail storm went just north of us through Haxtun and the surrounding fields.  There wasn't a lot of property damage, but Roy estimated that a few wheat fields lost up to 50% of their crop.  This is a truth that wheat farmers must bear: the end of wheat season corresponds to hail season.  In less than a month wheat harvest will begin.  Farmers must just pray that the hail doesn't take out their crops before they get a chance to harvest it.  It would be especially sad this year because the rain has been so generous and the crops are looking beautiful.


This storm was moving to the northeast (right side of the picture).  You can see some little tendrils forming on the leading side of the storm and the rain is following.  If you're not used to seeing rain falling at a distance (ie you can't see your horizon) the rain is the dark haze below the cloud on the left side of the picture.