How Denvers Unique Geography Creates Extreme Weather

"Kenda Ruck (00:05)
welcome to Living Colorado, getting real estate. before we begin, I wanna just ask you to please take a second and subscribe to our podcast. It really helps us out a lot and we appreciate it greatly. So I'm Kenda and this is my fearless co-host and business partner, John.

John Wilkinson (00:24)
How's it going, everybody? Yeah, so Kenda and I are transplants here. We both have moved from different places. Kenda from Cabo most recently, and I lived in Austin, Texas previously. And like most people that listen to this podcast or that live here in Colorado for that matter, we're transplants and it gives, I think, a unique perspective on what it's like to really live in Colorado. There's so many new places, new experiences, obviously, a lot of new people to meet, and today's episode is no different.

Yeah.

Kenda Ruck (00:52)
Yeah, I am so jazzed about today's episode because when I moved here from Cabo, one of the things that really excited me was the weather and the fact that there is variety here in in Denver, Colorado. And early on I started following our guest and I watched him every day on Instagram. So I just thought who better to talk with about the weather than our favorite like

Like best weathercaster Chris Bianchi from channel 9. He's the senior meteorologist there. Thank you so much for joining us today, Chris. I this is like a big moment for me.

Chris B (01:30)
thanks,

Kenda. Thanks, John. I really appreciate that. our weather here is probably a little different than Cabo for sure. maybe not that different from Austin, John, but well, I guess a little a little different than Austin. But

John Wilkinson (01:44)
The winter can be a little different. Yeah.

This this year was not very different, but

Chris B (01:48)
I

I'm sure you you enjoy being able to go outside in the middle of July here as opposed to Austin when you're stuck inside, right?

John Wilkinson (01:55)
Hundred percent. Chris, we so I read, you know, you're obviously you're an avid runner, skier, soccer player, and that you grew up in Connecticut, which I'm sure has its own wild weather. So what my question I guess twofold, what brought you to Denver and when you experienced, you know, your first wild weather event here in Denver, did you ever stop to think, what in the heck am I doing here?

Chris B (02:21)
great twofold question there. I'll start with the first part is what brought me out here is actually my parents both immigrated to Denver and they got married here. so I kinda have some deeper ties to Colorado. from that but my my mom but both my parents are from Chile originally in South America. They came here, got married here, moved out to New York, the New York area for work. I grew up in in in Connecticut, very close to New York City. but I moved out of here after school. I grew up a

kind of a lifelong diehard Colorado sports fan in part

Honestly, in large part 'cause of my parents, even though they don't really know Colorado sports, they they kind of instilled the love of Colorado in me. And I became a big Colorado sports fan, so I kind of always had an eye towards Colorado. And then when I moved out here, for work, really, and for personal as well, but A I loved it. It's hard not to love, and B, I really fell for the weather here. So to your second question, John, about like

if Colorado's weather like the first event. I I've been here sixteen plus years and it still doesn't get old. I'm serious about that. I I really get excited about these i w what's really unique about Denver and where we are, this w these wild temperature swings that we get, those are the things that really excite me. Like going from, I don't know, twenty to eighty in pretty

I don't know, twelve hours. I mean that happens, what, twice a winter, or or even spring, going from fifty to minus ten, those sorts of Arctic cold fronts, you get that in twelve hours. Those are the things that really just again, growing up in Connecticut and really this is a part of the country or part of the world really where that is very unique and that is what excites me about living here and the weather.

Kenda Ruck (04:04)
that's one of the things that people kind of warned me about, like, you're gonna see crazy weather. And I was like, okay, yeah, whatever. I lived in Atlanta. And Chris, it's it's real. So what causes those major swings? Like what geographically, why does that why does that happen?

Chris B (04:23)
So there's two things about here that are sh sorry, three things about here that are different that leads those wild swings and why we get that. Number one, most importantly, we're really far away from a big body of water. We're about eight hundred and fifty miles from the Gulf, we're about a thousand miles from the Pacific. water is basically a moderating factor for weather. water has a high specific heat. Point being it kind of

tamps down so it in Atlanta or Austin you're close enough to a body of water, certainly Cabo, to where that's moderating your temperature. You don't get dramatic swings because of that. So that's number one. That's the most important factor. Number two, our altitude. and the fact that we have this giant 14,000 foot wall of rock just to our west. the if you get that wind that comes off of it. So if you get a simple wind switch, so you get a let's say you're getting a north wind which is a cold wind, and then it switches to the west, you're going

from a cold wind to wind that is downsloping, and that is a warming motion almost always. and so that's why we can go from I don't know six inches of snow on the ground and 20 degrees in the morning to boom, next thing you know it's 65 degrees, the snow's gone, and you're out for a walk in Wash Park at 2.30 in the afternoon that day. That so that's that's number two. And then number three, and maybe what makes Denver a bit distinct compared to other places that

That

are similar to that is that we are kind of the meeting ground between the Pacific and the Gulf Atlantic water. So storms form here. so if you're, for example, talking about a nor'easter on the east coast, or you're talking about an Atlanta or Chicago showers and thunderstorms, those storm systems they fuse together here in Colorado because we're in the Lee of the Rockies and where we're think of the continental divide, where we're Pacific and Gulf Moisture kind of.

Yeah.

John Wilkinson (06:17)
You know, that's it's so interesting in Austin, there's a b about Coney's fault, right? 'Cause Austin's in the hill country of Texas and

the the weather there can be impacted by really it is Balconi's fault that Austin sometimes, you know, the w the storms are coming from West Texas and then it just kind of goes around Austin and meets again and then forms, you know, east of it. you know, because of that elevation change, rapid elevation change kind of breaks up the storm. I guess here in Denver there could be something. I I'll just say this because like a lot of times near City Park where I live, often we see all these storms kind of around us.

And not like right where we need the rain, you know, in Denver.

Chris B (07:01)
Yeah. s obviously here we're we're really prone to subtle things. The most important kind of subtle

Little bump in elevation or whatever that matters for our weather on a day-to-day basis is the Palmer Divide. That's castle rock. that goes up to about 7500 feet. You go up to the top of Monument Hill. That really dictates a lot of our weather. that little nudge in elevation, it's obviously not as dramatic or as prolific as the Rockies to our west, but that little nudge in elevation means when we're getting a south wind, which is one that brings us gulf moisture, which is, for example, Monday, June the 8th, we had a pretty noticeable.

notable severe weather risk. That was because we had a south wind that brought us that moisture from the Gulf. And when you have that little hill just to our south, it forces the air to go around it and that creates a little eddy and spin. And so that spin is really important to what dictates a lot of our weather here in Denver and a lot of specifics. I will say one thing I've noticed I get this message every time we get a thunderstorm, we have a thunderstorm risk in the Denver area. Everybody in the Denver area is convinced that their town does not get a thunderstorm.

it is the in fact I'll probably do a social media post on that later today. But like I get messages in my like I live in Lakewood, why do we not get storms every time? I live in City Park, why do I not get storms every time? I live in Centennial, why do we not get storms every time? And it is a

When we get thunderstorms, you know, even on a higher impact day, it's pretty common that no more than twenty five to thirty percent of the metro area will see a thunderstorm. even if we get a big hailer at one part of town, you know, that might cover five, ten percent. Like our worst days, you're talking about maybe twenty percent of the metro area getting a a major event. So I think that that and frankly that falls on me to better communicate that and us as an enterprise. but you know

When we have a severe weather risk day, it's pretty uncommon just 'cause we don't have the moisture, right? You know, in Austin you got that searing, seeping humidity. Atlanta, same idea. Here in Colorado are big lacking factors moisture. So it's just tough to get these huge storms that cover the entire metro area. We just don't get that. If we get little storms, it's usually impacting again a small population.

Kenda Ruck (09:16)
I'm sure you get blamed for like all these events. I I saw on your social media people were like, You told us to put our tomato plants out and now it's freezing, like what gives with that? I remember that. That was funny. But what are you also to blame for all the delayed flights in the afternoon in for the airport? Like what's going on there? You gotta do better.

Chris B (09:29)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They they listen to me. I I I wish I had that kind of I I don't wish. I don't have that kind of influence. Let's just leave it at that. but you know y again, I always say that with the airport is two, I'm actually gonna do the weather specifically from the airport

Kenda Ruck (09:45)
Ha ha ha.

Chris B (09:55)
And actually do the weather with planes taking off behind me on the tarmac. And one of the points is what delays flights is totally different than what the average person thinks. Everybody anytime you hear about a snowflake coming, people are like, my god, is my flight gonna be okay? And ninety percent of the time your flights gonna be okay. but it's the little gusty, wispy storms that we had almost every afternoon here in in the summer, those are what just destroy your flights. That's what's gonna mess your flight up.

John Wilkinson (10:24)
Interesting, and it is also like east that gets a lot of that that storm activity, especially in the summer.

Chris B (10:33)
Yeah, so East Metro has two things about it that

are different than the west of the the the than the rest of the metro area. one, it is a little further east, so it is a bit closer usually to the moisture source. John you might be familiar with the term dry line without getting too geeky. that is the dividing line between kind of warm, dry desert air and really humid gulf air. And that dry line can often be right around the east metro area. So that's a starting point. You're a bit closer again to the Gulf.

Number two is that little spin thing that I mentioned without getting into too much detail. It's called the Denver Convergence Forticity Zone. I promise there won't be a quiz on this, but basically there's like a little natural like l little boundary.

Think of a little little cold front kind of on the east side of the metro area. And that is why probably am amongst the many conspiracy theories that surround the airport, that the the airport is actually more susceptible and more prone to getting tornadoes because of that, because that boundary often is right over or right near the airport because again the moist south-southeast wind is forced to go around the Palmer Divide and it creates a little spin. That spin is often right over or right near the airport.

John Wilkinson (11:49)
I do follow you on on social and have before we even moved here. and yeah I think you provide such great insight. And one of the things that you've said is, you know, try not to land in Denver between two and seven PM because of of these storms. And there's a potential that I mean I've been redirected to Colorado Springs twice, right? Because there's storms in around the airport that that just don't allow you to to get here. Sucks.

Chris B (12:12)
Yeah, yeah.

And to be clear, I also violate that rule all the time. Like I think about that. I make fun of myself every time. I actually did on Sunday, I flew in at I think four or four thirty or something, which is like prime time. And also if you hate turbulence, it's the worst time for turbulence 'cause that same thing is just rocking your plane around. I mean you're fine, just if you don't like turbulence, it's not a great time to fly in. but if you really want to get somewhere, I always say this like you you need to get somewhere, you got a wedding or you got like a business meeting, you gotta be there. Take that six AM, take that eight AM flight. you'll be

Fine 95 out of 100 times out of Denver flying out at you know, anytime really before noon, you're gonna be fine.

John Wilkinson (12:52)
So you mentioned the little myths about the airport, you know, the that that the the conspiracy theories about the around the airport, but what other weather myths, you know, like obviously they say, you know, Denver gets three hundred days of sunshine a year. What weather myths have you heard or that that should be debunked?

Chris B (12:57)
Yeah.

that's a good one. well I'll start with the 300 days of sunshine thing. that is a myth, in my opinion. You know, it's subjective, right? It's still there's still some subjectivity. Like what is sunshine, right? If you're getting a blip of sunshine for 20 minutes, then that's true. But if you have a mostly gray day that most people would consider to be a cloudy day, but you get a blip of sunshine at the end.

that if you count all those days, then yeah, we do get three hundred days of sunshine a year. But in terms of, you know, end to end mostly sunny days where you're getting, you know, a day like today or most days in the summer, we're getting probably about two hundred

twenty five, two hundred and fifty, which is still a lot. It's just you know, we're a dry place. We are the high desert. We only average fourteen inches of water per year. that is less than a third of what Austin gets. Atlanta gets, you know, probably closer to about a quarter of what Atlanta gets. So y w we're we're a dry place. So I think that that

is lost a little bit despite our crazy weather, we are still a very dry place. So that's that's an important thing to note and maybe a little bit of a a myth. But the the other thing is maybe it's because we're in the season for it. I do think that there tends to be a bit too much panic when it comes to tornadoes specifically. and and that that's not so much of a myth as much as it is a

We've had five tornado fatalities in the state of Colorado since nineteen fifteen. I'm I'm not meaning that to jinx things. I'm looking at this from a scientific scientific logical way. We don't get the big honkin tornadoes that Oklahoma and Texas get. Or we do. They're very rare. We may get one or two a year. They're usually over the Far Eastern Plains, over open fields. We don't have

you in the Denver metro area, we've had in my lifetime one Supercell tornado here, which was the twenty twenty three Highlands Ranch tornado. those are very uncommon force in the core metro area. And so when we say anything about a tornado, that immediately freaks out a lot of people. And one of the things I try and do is just it's not to you know, i if you're in a building and you're in the lowest floor of it, you're gonna be fine in a Colorado tornado. You really are.

Our biggest tornado we've had is an EF EF three, EF three equivalent. And again, that that can certainly be damaging. I don't want to mitigate what that can do. It's just when we think of Wizards of Oz tornadoes, when we think about Oklahoma tornadoes, we think about overnight tornadoes. I mean, John, you're familiar with those in Texas. those are the ones that are really deadly and loss of life producing. you have a better chance of getting killed by your lawnmower in Colorado than by a tornado.

And so I I say that not to say don't be scared of tornadoes, but hopefully to urge some calm as well. It's again, we had a tornado watch on Monday and people are freaking out, freaking out, and it's you know, you'll be fine. If you're in a building, you're in you're taking those precautions, you're going to be fine in Colorado.

Kenda Ruck (16:10)
the thing that really scares me a little bit is the hail. the hail that I've seen videos of here, the hail is it's it's one of the most destructive weather events that we have in Colorado. Is that correct? Or is that

Chris B (16:27)
Absolutely.

We we are perhaps we are certainly the most hail prone major metro area in the United States. we are also globally the most one of the most

hail prone and large hail prone areas in the United States. In fact, the largest the the the the costliest hail storms on record are all in the Denver metro area in the United States. We've had multiple billion dollar disasters. Most recently the May 2024 hail storm and across the Northeast metro area, John not too far away from probably where you live.

So, yeah, where we had baseball sized hail. I thought Monday was Monday was a little dicey. We had a real chance for that. Fortunately it didn't happen. but w we're really prone for us those three things I mentioned earlier. We're we're we we're far away from a moisture source, which is the Gulf, but we're still close enough to it that we can get that moisture. If we get that moisture and because of our elevation, you know, less space essentially for that ice to melt.

we're very prone to getting big hail and we're in the we're very unique in terms of how often we get hail and how often we get big hail here in town. And that really is, again, I mentioned this on Monday when we had on Monday, June the eighth, when we had a a severe weather risk and we had a tornado watch. I said the big thing to watch out for, yes there's a tornado risk, keep an eye, but the thing to watch out for, it is hail. That is what's gonna really you know, mess you up or really be a real threat to life and property.

Kenda Ruck (17:58)
what should you do if you're driving? Like I don't really know the protocol. If you're driving, do you go under an overpass? Do you pull up? What do you do?

Chris B (18:06)
Yeah,

so don't go under an overpass. That that clogs traffic. That's really important not to do. Another thing about o overpasses is that the wind can i if you're in an in an overpass and you're talking about a severe storm, which if you got big hail, that's usually a severe storm, you can get the wind and that wind will funnel under an overpass. You you might be more dangerous you're in a more dangerous spot if you're in a overpass underneath an overpass. And yes, you might be protecting your windshield,

you're backing up traffic and it's a real mess of things. but what you should do is really it's not drive on, but just pull over to the side of the road as far as to the side as possible. If you can't get to a building or to a little awning like a gas station or something like that. try and get to that obviously as quickly as possible. If not, just pull over as far as possible and just wait it out. I I hate to say it. It's it it stinks.

And obviously, you know, I would put the onus more on try not to drive during a hailstorm, right? If you see those dark skies, you know, maybe check social media quickly or check the radar or something like that. And if you see a big storm coming, try not to be on the road. That's the worst spot to be during a hail storm.

John Wilkinson (19:16)
Yeah, yeah I had we had an event last night and and somebody was talking about this app called Hail No. and it and apparently it like tracks hail or potential hail storms around where where you are, where you're gonna drive. I've gotta check it out. I don't know how effective it is, but you know, interesting.

Kenda Ruck (19:24)
Yeah.

Chris B (19:36)
Yeah, I'm honestly not familiar with it, but there are a lot of tools for it. Hail, especially here in the metro area, it's a really finicky, dicey thing, and it's not You know, if you I would just say, again, if we got a tornado watch, we got a big risk for severe weather, and you see storms coming, just like, can you like push that doctor's appointment and just call and say, like, can I wait 30 minutes or can you just

hold off on that grocery store trip or just try not to be on the roads and not only for hail, like I think one thing that's also lost is that flash flooding is also it's it's one of our biggest weather related killers in the state Colorado is flash flooding. We average, I believe it's about two or three fatalities per year from flash flooding, and it's usually from people out on the roads. So

You know, w we're in a dry place, like I mentioned, right? So the ground if we get an inch, inch and a half of rain in twenty minutes, you know, Austin, Atlanta, you can handle that. Colorado can't. and that's not a

that's not commentary on our infrastructure, it's commentary on our ground. think about pouring a bucket of water onto a tile floor as opposed to a carpet, right? That water is just gonna spread. and that's what happens here. And so that's also another important point is you know, just try not to be on the roads. If you're if you're at home, you can probably do things for your car, even if you don't have a garage, you can put blankets on it and stuff like that. But not much you can do if you're out on the road.

John Wilkinson (20:58)
No. Yeah, I lived in Phoenix for a bit and I remember when we would get monsoon season, and it would rain, man, those streets would

fill with water quickly because probably that that same effect. But you know, it it and because it is dry, you know, people are out in this the myth of the 300 days of sunshine. You're you know moving here, one of the things I've noticed is people are out and about doing things all the time, right? Running around, walking city park, you know, they're very, very active. How do you how do you think the weather impacts kind of the culture, right, or act or life or active lifestyle that that Denver has?

Chris B (21:34)
Yeah, I mean, usually it's pretty great weather, right? Like w we're we're pretty lucky that we have good good weather to do things, to be active, to be outside, particularly in the mornings, right? In the summer, it's pretty hard to find a morning where you can't hike a fourteen or a ten, ten thirty in the morning, play golf. one thing that's really nice about here is that,

Our storm timing is almost is very consistent. because of our lack of moisture, it's pretty tough to get a storm earlier than two. It can happen. It can happen. you know, last Monday, June the first, we had a hail storm around one. it's uncommon, but and it's also tough to get for us to get late night storms. It happens every here and there, but you know, Austin, Atlanta, right, East Coast, those places are prone to getting late night storms.

It's just not common here in in along the I twenty five corridor So that's the kinda nice thing too is, you know, ninety ninety five percent of the time your storm is gonna come somewhere between about two and seven PM. That is gonna be the time where you get a storm. And if you are doing something at two to seven PM

ninety percent of the time in the summer, you know there's a chance for storms. But that's another thing that I think that helps lend to doing outdoor things here is that our t our storm timing is really consistent as opposed to a lot of other places.

John Wilkinson (22:55)
I love that. You know, and I think, you know, you mentioned the fourteen or I I've not yet done one. plan on doing one this this month. but people are like, You got three AM, you know, and go before the storm. Everyone everyone's very aware when the the afternoon storms can kick in and you don't obviously wanna be up that elevation when a storm, you know, comes in. And you know, in Austin, we would have storms at

Chris B (23:01)
Rads.

John Wilkinson (23:17)
inevitably after 10 PM. and I am a weather guy. I like to see a storm. I like to see the rain, you know, but we were asleep. And it's also dang scary because, you know, you're asleep and things happen at night that that that you're not aware of or can prepare for. So it is kind of I guess nice that we get to storms during the daytime when we can either prepare or enjoy the rain.

Chris B (23:38)
Absolutely. I think we're lucky about that. One other thing I'll say too is that this is a weather smart community. Like the Denver metro area, people are pretty aware of a and and pretty forgiving too about I don't know about blown forecasts, but like understanding that there's we're in a uniquely difficult place to forecast because of the mountains. and so if things are wrong it's obviously

try not to take a fatalistic approach about that. But the the the the problem is is when I live in I work in a line of industry where I'm predicting the future, I'm gonna get stuff wrong sometimes, right? Or we're gonna get s stuff wrong, right? There's just a it's a probability based thing. It's not a this is going to happen or this isn't going to happen. It's this here are the chances of it because again we're talking about the future.

So people are pretty forgiving about that. Again, I'm from the New York area. People are not forgiving there. and I'm pretty sure the rest of the country I think people get it here a little bit, not only in terms of the threats, what you were saying, people getting up at three AM because of the storms, but also understanding that what we do is a science and it's not you know, I'm not a I'm not a deity. I'm not I I don't know exactly what's gonna happen at your house tomorrow. I I would love to. If I did, I assure you I'd I'd cash in on that. But

Kenda Ruck (24:33)
Yeah.

John Wilkinson (24:57)
Sure.

Chris B (24:57)
I don't

you know. that's just the reality. And people get it and people understand it and they're pretty nice and forgiving about that. you know, even on times where which is gonna happen again, unfortunately, where, you know, maybe I say get a really bad snow and ends up not being that bad or something like that.

Kenda Ruck (25:06)
Mm-hmm.

John Wilkinson (25:15)
Sure.

Kenda Ruck (25:16)
Yeah, you

bring up the snow. I was in Cabo this winter watching you every day and you're like, I don't know what's hap know, it's gonna be seventy-five degree. I don't know what's going on. There's like there there just wasn't any

What happened to the snow this year? And then you also brought up the Super El Nino that we are maybe gonna be seeing coming up this summer and into next year. And so my question is, do you think next year we're gonna have a better snowpack than we have this year?

Chris B (25:48)
I'll say again saying on a probability basis.

Yeah, I mean it'd be mostly because it'd be really tough for us not to have as bad of a snowpack as this year. I mean that was so bad. That was a obviously historic low in every way possible, which was caused by a really persistent La Nina pattern and we just had a persistent ridge of high pressure, just we just couldn't kick the pattern. And even times when we would kind of slowly get out of it, it would just wouldn't last for more than a week or two. And that was the problem. We just couldn't get out of the pat the pattern was super consistent in the worst way possible.

Kenda Ruck (25:55)
Yeah. To be worse.

Chris B (26:22)
But on the good news side of things, again, speaking to what I just said a second ago where what we do is probability based and where we're talking about a super El Nino, a super El Nino just to be clear also it's not an official term, it's it means that

sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific are two degrees centigrade or more above average, which is very, very warm. So it means just really warm water in the Central Pacific leads to a domino effect of weather that tends to increase the probabilities for us getting more snow, particularly in our southern mountains here in Colorado. But also for the front range for the Denver area, we do tend to see more snow or at least more chances for getting snowstorms. Now i i it's just

You know, i I think of it like the NBA lottery where they do those ping pong balls and you're just adding ping pong balls, right? For you getting the number one pick or whatever it is. That's it it's not it's not again that we are going to get the number one pick or we are going to have a big snow season. It's you're increasing those ping pong balls because you have this domino effect of weather that makes that more possible, if that makes sense.

John Wilkinson (27:30)
It's great analogy. Yeah, you are. Yeah.

Chris B (27:32)
Thanks. I love sports, so I I like I I

do throw in the the odd sports analogy here and there.

John Wilkinson (27:40)
I love that.

Well this has been super fun, Chris. we really appreciate your time. I know you're busy, it's summer, there's weather to forecast and we will definitely be watching. next week we are going to be talking to Justin Gregory, who is local designer, talking about design trends and very different than the weather, you know, so but it'll be a fun episode really again I know, we'll see. I don't know. design trends. He's not gonna predict kind of like he's gonna

Kenda Ruck (28:04)
Yeah.

John Wilkinson (28:11)
try to predict what people are gonna be doing in their homes over the next throughout 2026 into 2027. So that'll be an interesting episode for sure.

Chris B (28:21)
Y yeah, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you both. And yeah, thanks for thanking me and having me on and you know, sunny skies.
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