Tornadoes in Colorado, October 4, 2004

Name: Tornadoes in Colorado, October 4, 2004
Start: 2004-10-04T14:55
End: 2004-10-04T15:48
Location: Colorado

October 4, 2004 · NWS BOU · 11 events in 2 counties and zones

11 tornado, 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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 11

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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Denver/Boulder, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Oct 4, 1:55 PM MST, 1 hour earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 4, 1:55 PM MST, 1 hour before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO
255 PM MDT MON OCT 4 2004

.SHORT TERM DISCUSSION...UPPER RIDGE OVER COLORADO WILL SHIFT TO THE
EAST LATE TONIGHT AND SLOW MOVING STORM SYSTEM OVER NEVADA MOVES TO
THE EAST.  THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTN ARE MAINLY DIURNAL SO EXPECTED
THEY SHOULD DIE OFF BY LATE EVENING.  DENVER CYCLONE WILL ALLOW
STORMS TO DEVELOP ALONG A CONVERGENT BOUNDARY SOUTH AND EAST OF
DENVER THIS AFTN WITH MORE DVLG ALONG THE FRONTHILLS. QG ASCENT
ASSOCIATED WITH THE APPROACHING SYSTEM IS NOT EXPECTED TO INNCREASE
OVER THE WEST AND SOUTHERN SECTIONS OF THE CWFA UNTIL LATE TUESDAY
AFTN AS THE UPPER TROF MOVES INTO WRN CO.  VERY WEAK FLOW ALOFT ON
TUESDAY AFTN SO STORMS THAT DO DEVELOP WILL BE FAIRLY STATIONARY.
SUSPECT MUCH OF THE ACTIVITY WILL OCCUR IN THE MTNS AND ALONG THE
FRONT RANGE BUT THERE IS A CHANCE OF ANOTHER DENVER CYCLONE...
SIMILAR TO THIS AFTN.  AS A RESULT...COULD ALSO SEE SOME STORM
DEVELOP ALONG THIS CONVERGENT BOUNDARY AGAIN TUESDAY AFTN.  CAPES ON
TUESDAY LOOK TO BE IN THE 600-800 J/KG RANGE ALONG THE URBAN
CORRIDOR AND AROUND 1000 J/KG IN THE NORTHEAST PLAINS.

.LONG TERM DISCUSSION...WEAK UPPER LEVEL LOW ACROSS WRN GREAT BASIN
WILL SLOWLY MOVE ACROSS RGN THROUGH WED NITE. MODELS ARE IN GENERAL
AGREEMENT BUT GFS A LITTLE STRONGER AND QUITE A BIT WETTER THAN THE
ETA. GFS SEEMS TOO WET GIVEN CURRENT MSTR AS SYSTEM LOOKS A BIT
SPARSE WITH MOISTURE BUT SOME MOISTURE ADVECTION WILL TAKE PLACE
WITH WEAK S-SE FLOW AHD OF THE LOW. CURRENT POPS SEEM A BIT LOW AND
WILL RAISE POPS SLIGHTLY ACROSS THE BOARD TUE NITE THRU WED NITE
WITH THE HIGHER POPS ACROSS MTNS AND SRN PTNS OF CWA IN CLOSER
PROXIMITY TO UPWARD FORCING AND MOISTURE. NO SIGNIFICANT COLD AIR OR
UPSLOPE FLOW...HENCE POPS OVER THE PLAINS WILL STILL REMAIN IN THE
ISOLD CATEGORY WITH THE EXCEPTION OF SRN AREAS.

A DRYING TREND FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK AS STRONG UPPER LEVEL LOWS
DEVELOPING ON BOTH COASTS AND WEAK HIGH PRESSURE IN THE MIDDLE OF
THE COUNTRY. LASTEST FEW RUNS OF GFS HAVE SHOWN MORE OF A HIGH
AMPLITUDE SOLUTION INSTEAD OF A MORE PROGRESSIVE PATTERN INDICATED
YESTERDAY. ESPECIALLY WITH THESE CURRENT TRENDS...WILL KEEP LONG
RANGE DRY AND SEASONABLE THROUGH NEXT MONDAY.
&&

.BOU WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE.

&&

COOPER/ENTREKIN

Hazardous weather outlook, Oct 4, 10:01 AM MST, 4 hours 54 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO
1101 AM MDT MON OCT 04 2004

COZ030>051-051200-
JACKSON COUNTY BELOW 9000 FEET-WEST JACKSON AND WEST GRAND
COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-GRAND AND SUMMIT COUNTIES BELOW 9000
FEET-SOUTH AND EAST JACKSON/LARIMER/NORTH AND NORTHEAST GRAND/
NORTHWEST BOULDER COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST
GRAND/WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST BOULDER/GILPIN/CLEAR CREEK/
SUMMIT/NORTH AND WEST PARK COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-LARIMER AND
BOULDER COUNTIES BETWEEN 6000 AND 9000 FEET-JEFFERSON AND WEST
DOUGLAS COUNTIES ABOVE 6000 FEET/GILPIN/CLEAR CREEK/NORTHEAST PARK
COUNTIES BELOW 9000 FEET-CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST PARK COUNTY-LARIMER
COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTHWEST WELD COUNTY-BOULDER AND JEFFERSON
COUNTIES BELOW 6000 FEET/WEST BROOMFIELD COUNTY-NORTH DOUGLAS
COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/DENVER/WEST ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE COUNTIES/
EAST BROOMFIELD COUNTY-ELBERT/CENTRAL AND EAST DOUGLAS COUNTIES
ABOVE 6000 FEET-NORTHEAST WELD COUNTY-CENTRAL AND SOUTH WELD
COUNTY-MORGAN COUNTY-CENTRAL AND EAST ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE COUNTIES-
NORTH AND NORTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTH LINCOLN
COUNTY-SOUTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/SOUTH LINCOLN
COUNTY-LOGAN COUNTY-WASHINGTON COUNTY-SEDGWICK COUNTY-PHILLIPS
COUNTY-
1101 AM MDT MON OCT 04 2004

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL
COLORADO.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP OVER THE
MOUNTAINS AGAIN THIS AFTERNOON. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS WILL
SPREAD ONTO THE PLAINS THIS EVENING. HIGH PRESSURE REMAINS OVER THE
NORTHERN PLAINS GIVING WEAK UPSLOPE WINDS...WHILE AN UPPER LEVEL
TROUGH WILL SLOWLY APPROACH FROM THE WEST. THIS COMBINATION WILL
KEEP A MOIST AND SLIGHTLY UNSTABLE AIRMASS OVER COLORADO.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY

ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE AGAIN EXPECTED TO DEVELOP
OVER THE MOUNTAINS AND EASTERN PLAINS TUESDAY AFTERNOON AND
NIGHT...ESPECIALLY IN THE MOUNTAINS AND SOUTHERN FRONT RANGE
FOOTHILLS. A VERY SLOW MOVING LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL BE MOVING
ACROSS THE REGION TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY RESULTING IN THE SHOWER
ACTIVITY.

DRIER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED THROUGH THE REST OF THE WEEK AS HIGH
PRESSURE BUILDS OVER THE REGION.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT.

COOPER/ENTREKIN

The radar

The Denver radar (KFTG), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:54 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment