https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_Convergence_Vorticity_Zone
The microclimatology of mountain ranges is so neat. Denver receives warm winds from its southeast, then those get trapped in the foothills of the Rockies between Denver and Boulder/Golden. The mountains ricochet that air back around and it becomes trapped. In effect Denver tends to become a static hurricane where it's either the eye or the ring. If everyone else in the region gets a big storm it looks like this. If the storms are dodging all of the other cities, they're funneled into Denver and they get a high chance of tornado activity. Today Denver was the eye of the hurricane.
I used to live in Golden and once saw the wind bend a stop sign down to be horizontal. I also witnessed a tornado and a giant hail storm near the IKEA a couple years ago.
IIRC Denver was built in a basin formed by an ancient lake. The vortex is also why smog tends to stick around, much like in LA.
It's such a fun region for weather. What we lack in big storms, we make up for in the mountain topography turning the weather extreme and unpredictable on a town-to-town basis. I really like seeing how things differ from Cheyenne to CO Springs based on the shapes of the mountains above them.