Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 1965

F2 tornado, Phillips County, Colorado, May 24, 1965

This F2 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Phillips County on May 24, 1965, touching down at 2:00 PM GMT-6 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
May 24, 1965
Touchdown
2:00 PM GMT-6 (20:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Phillips County
Touchdown point
40.500, -102.300
Record number
397

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Denver, CO (KDEN), 12:00Z

8.0 hours before the tornado, 106 km from the path. May 24, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 1965-05-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 86 joules per kilogram, CIN -61, lifted condensation level 940 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 1965-05-24The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -29 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 93 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
86 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-61 J/kg
Surface CAPE
329 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
940 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
93 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-29 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-12 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

4.0 hours after it, 106 km from the path. May 25, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 1965-05-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 273 joules per kilogram, CIN -52, lifted condensation level 2503 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 1965-05-25The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 23 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
273 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-52 J/kg
Surface CAPE
946 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2503 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
9.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1965 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 24, 1965

34 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2412:00 AM GMT-6F1Las Animas, CO0.110$500 to $5,000
May 2412:30 PM GMT-5F1Buffalo, NE176.410$5,000 to $50,000
May 2412:00 PM GMT-6F1Scotts Bluff, NE0.110
May 241:00 PM GMT-6F1Kit Carson, CO0.110$50 to $500
May 243:00 PM GMT-4F0Orangeburg, SC0.110under $50
May 242:43 PM GMT-5F0Saline, KS0.510
May 242:57 PM GMT-5F0Yankton, SD0.110
May 243:00 PM GMT-5F2Yankton, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 243:00 PM GMT-5F1McCook, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 243:10 PM GMT-5F1Yankton, SD15.210$500 to $5,000
May 243:15 PM GMT-5F3McCook, SD9.020$500 to $5,000
May 243:15 PM GMT-5F1McCook, SD7.250$5,000 to $50,000
May 242:40 PM GMT-6F1Cheyenne, NE0.110
May 243:40 PM GMT-5F1McCook, SD4.3100$500 to $5,000
May 243:02 PM GMT-6F1Dawes, NE0.110
May 244:15 PM GMT-5F1Minnehaha, SD0.110
May 244:15 PM GMT-5F0Minnehaha, SD0.110
May 244:15 PM GMT-5F2Lake, SD0.110
May 244:15 PM GMT-5F2Lake, SD7.910
May 244:50 PM GMT-5F1Lake, SD0.110
May 244:50 PM GMT-5F0Roger Mills, OK0.110
May 245:00 PM GMT-5F1Brookings, SD9.410
May 245:50 PM GMT-5F1McCook, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 246:00 PM GMT-5F1Jewell, KS13.5100
May 246:15 PM GMT-5F1Yellow Medicine, MN0.510$5,000 to $50,000
May 246:30 PM GMT-5F2Logan, NE34.610
May 247:00 PM GMT-5F0Harper, OK0.110
May 249:00 PM GMT-5F1Kossuth, IA3.0750under $50
May 249:10 PM GMT-5F1Warren, IA0.110
May 249:45 PM GMT-5F0Lincoln, SD0.110
May 2410:00 PM GMT-5F0Harper, OK0.110
May 2410:30 PM GMT-5F0Anoka, MN0.510$5,000 to $50,000
May 2410:35 PM GMT-5F0McCook, SD0.110
May 2412:45 AM GMT-5F1Chippewa, WI0.233$500 to $5,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.