This is too impressive not to post. A tornado hit the sprawling grounds of the Denver International Airport today, missing the terminals to the east by a few thousand feet. The tornado reportedly destroyed the National Weather Service's weather station, which reported a 97 MPH winds before it stopped relaying data, according to Weatherbug meteorologist Jacob Wycoff.
The tornado was so close to the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar -- the small Doppler radar used for Denver International Airport -- that a "donut hole" was visible in the precipitation-free center of the tornado as it crossed between runways 34R and 34L. The tornado passed exactly 5,000 feet east of the A Gates.
Here's a zoomed in view of the same radar sweep:
Numerous pictures of the tornado are showing up on Twitter, showing the dry tornado (a tornado without a visible condensation funnel -- typical for drier, high altitude tornadoes like this one) sucking up the dirt and dust on the east side of the airport.
As far as I know, there's no damage to the airport (or surrounding areas) other than the demolished weather station. I'll update the diary with anymore information as I come across it.
6:53 PM PT: