Clear Creek sheriff's deputies on Thursday arrested a rafting guide for swimming to a stranded young rafter who had tumbled from his boat on Clear Creek. Ryan Daniel Snodgrass, a 28-year-old guide with Arkansas Valley Adventures rafting company, was charged with "obstructing government operations," said Clear Creek Sheriff Don Krueger. It seems Mr. Snodgrass thought the sheriff's rescue operation was taking too long. I guess the sheriff didn't like being upstaged. The full story here . 

A tornado warning was issued for the Denver Airport. These photos provided by my compadre Michelle Strecker and her husband, Jeff. You can see the rotation in the cloud below. Storms with large hail often look green as this one does under the shelf cloud.  Note there is no one on the airport ramp. They are evacuated due to the threat of lightning. There were several reports of hail between 1 and 1.75" in diameter. Here is what it looked like on radar. Denver International (DEN) is just east of the storm.  According to Michelle, they have stopped takeoffs and landings. However, the FAA is a little imprecise in describing the situation: I think they mean tornado and downburst. That's OK...the system prevents accidents from occurring!

The topic of black and white radar seems to piqued some interest, specifically, how could I have a photo that shows the whole radar if it faded quickly? The answer is that it was a time exposure (i.e., I kept the lens open until the radar swept all the way around). Here is what a non-time exposure shot looked like: While there were no thunderstorms on the 'scope when I took this picture, it should illustrate the point. Only a narrow "slice" was fully illuminated at any given moment. The echoes began to fade quickly after the sweep went by, which is why radar before 1976 had to be viewed in a darkened room.

I smiled when I saw this radar data. At the time the image was captured, there was a downburst over Denver International Airport. The green/blue colors are winds flowing toward the radar and the yellow/red colors are winds flowing away. Twenty-five years ago, that might have resulted in the plane crash. Today, it merely resulted in an interruption in take offs and landings. Of course, this will not make news because nothing happened. One reason that meteorology often doesn't receive the credit is because, when we do our jobs well, nothing happens. Here's to much more "nothing"!

As a "hair challenged" individual, I hope this isn't the start of a trend... China   has cancelled a controversial visa restriction on bald Taiwanese visitors amid discrimination concerns,   travel agents   and local media said Thursday. The rule imposed by the southern Chinese city of Xiamen barred bald people from applying for one-year multiple-entry permits before it was cancelled earlier this year, according to  Taiwan's   Travel Agent Association. "It would probably have raised the question of discrimination if Chinese customs officials were to ask visitors to remove their wigs," said  Roger Hsu,  a spokesman for the association. Hsu said the rule had mainly applied to frequent business travellers but he said he did not know how many people had their visas rejected for being bald. From Beitbart News.  

Young woman hit by lightning seconds before her boyfriend was going to propose marriage.

"We got to think about the world we live in,” says Kutcher. “I mean we have to be conscious. This is like not a right, it’s a privilege to be on this land and using its resources and we have to be smart about it.” When Kutcher says "we," he means everyone but himself. He drives around in a Navistar CXT, which averages seven miles per gallon. Not to mention his use of private jets . I don't begrudge him the jets, the truck, or anything else. What I dislike is being lectured to by people who have gigantic carbon footprints. Hat Tip: Michelle Oddis .