It was 38 years ago…June 3rd, 1981. It was your typical day at school. If you know Denver, at least from back then, the weather pattern at this time of year was also fairly typical. Fairly warm, 80’s day. At lunch time, I was outside playing basketball with my buddies. I remember thinking it seemed a bit humid for Denver, which is generally pretty dry.

I am in class (yes, back in the 80’s school didn’t get out until the first weekend in June), taking my history final when I look out the window. It was getting pretty windy and out the window, looking West, the typical afternoon thunderstorm was headed our direction every late Spring/early Summer afternoon between 2:30-3:00pm to cool things off a bit.

Only on this day, this was not going to be our typical Denver afternoon thunderstorm. Starting at about 2:45pm, there was a lot of wind, a lot of lightning, A LOT of golf ball sized hail, and several funnel clouds around the Metro-Denver area. But one, turned out to not just be a funnel cloud, but down came a ferocious F2 tornado.

Back in these days, many of the schools were ill-prepared for a tornado situation at the school. In the middle school, every was asked to leave the classroom and go into the hallway and cover our heads (huh??). My sister’s elementary school Principal completely lost his mind and LET THE KIDS GO HOME…many of which, like my sister, had to WALK HOME while the beginning phases of the storm began happening and she was hit with a golf ball sized hailstorm in the ankle a block from our home. My Mom, looking out side for her, has to go out in the storm, pick her up, and carry her to the basement. (Yes, he was fired 2 days later).

A shopping center was destroyed, North Valley Bank was damaged as were some homes. Thank God, the damage was minimal and no one is killed. To read the whole story, click on this link www.thorntonweather.com for more. Here is a photo of this very tornado from 38 years ago today.