Alert archive / Colorado / Tornado Watches in 2024

Tornado Watch 269

May 20, 20247 counties in Colorado

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 20, 2024, 4:07 PM MDT for 7 counties in Colorado. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 20, 2024, 4:07 PM MDT (22:07 UTC)
Expired: May 20, 2024, 11:00 PM MDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

Counties Logan County, CO, Morgan County, CO, Phillips County, CO, Sedgwick County, CO, Washington County, CO, Weld County, CO, Yuma County, CO

The radar

The Denver radar (KFTG), 137 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:07 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 40%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 50%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 60%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 60%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

31 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 20, 6:22 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BOU	Morgan	38 min
May 20, 6:53 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BOU	Morgan, Washington	52 min
May 20, 6:56 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BOU	Morgan, Washington	34 min
May 20, 7:04 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BOU	Morgan	41 min
May 20, 7:30 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BOU	Washington	30 min
May 20, 7:36 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BOU	Morgan, Washington	24 min
May 20, 7:49 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BOU	Washington	26 min
May 20, 7:51 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BOU	Adams, Morgan	39 min
May 20, 7:56 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BOU	Washington	34 min
May 20, 7:57 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	GLD	Yuma	63 min
May 20, 8:02 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BOU	Morgan, Washington	43 min
May 20, 8:08 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BOU	Adams, Morgan	37 min
May 20, 8:14 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BOU	Adams, Washington	31 min
May 20, 8:27 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	GLD	Yuma	33 min
May 20, 8:29 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	BOU	Washington	46 min
May 20, 8:41 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BOU	Washington	34 min
May 20, 8:44 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BOU	Washington	46 min
May 20, 8:59 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	GLD	Yuma	61 min
May 20, 9:07 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	BOU	Washington	3 hr
May 20, 9:12 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BOU	Washington	48 min
May 20, 9:16 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BOU	Washington	29 min
May 20, 9:20 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	GLD	Yuma	4 hr
May 20, 9:41 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	GLD	Yuma	64 min
May 20, 9:44 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BOU	Washington	46 min
May 20, 9:56 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BOU	Washington	34 min
May 20, 10:00 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	GLD	Yuma	60 min
May 20, 10:11 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	GLD	Yuma	18 min
May 20, 10:26 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BOU	Washington	34 min
May 20, 10:27 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	GLD	Kit Carson, Yuma	33 min
May 20, 10:43 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	GLD	Yuma	62 min
May 20, 10:59 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	GLD	Kit Carson, Yuma	46 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Dodge City, (KDDC), launched 12:00Z, 10.1 hours before the alert went out and 417 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 1076 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -267 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 603 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 105 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 128 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 20, 2:47 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld and 1 more	2 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Colorado, 2024 Every tornado watch in 2024

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.