Tornado and Hail in Colorado, October 11, 1997

Name: Tornado and Hail in Colorado, October 11, 1997
Start: 1997-10-11T19:45
End: 1997-10-11T20:02
Location: Colorado

October 11, 1997 · NWS PUB · 2 events in 1 county or zone

1 tornado, 1 hail, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $85,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

The radar

The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 103 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 02:43 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado, 1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Otero

When: October 11, 7:45 PM MST to 8:02 PM MST
Where: Otero County, La Junta to 16 mi SE of La Junta
Rating: F1
Path length: 8 mi
Path width: 200 yd
Property damage: $75,000
Coordinates: 37.750, -103.430

Another supercell thunderstorm brought large hail and a tornado to southeast Otero county. The storm and accompanying tornado moved out of open country southwest of the Higbee Valley and struck several ranches just north of the Purgatoire River on Road 804. At about 8:45 p.m. the tornado struck three ranches about 3 miles southwest of Higbee. Some barns were destroyed, and roofs were ripped off others. Horse trailers, windmills, feed troughs, hay feeders, water tanks, grain storage bins were destroyed. Many large cottonwood trees were broken off or uprooted. The tornado ripped through the northwest side of Higbee, and one horse perished from injuries due to flying debris there. The tornado then moved northeast through open ranch country for another 5 miles, with the only known damage being two downed power poles.

Hail, Otero

When: October 11, 7:50 PM MST to 7:55 PM MST
Where: Otero County, 14 mi S of La Junta
Measured: 2.5 in hail
Property damage: $10,000
Coordinates: 37.770, -103.550

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Colorado in 1997 Every state in 1997 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Colorado, 1997 Warnings in Colorado, October 1997

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5621844, 5621843.