Tornadoes · United States · Colorado

1975 tornadoes in Colorado

20 tornadoes touched down in Colorado in 1975, 39 percent below the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

1974 1976 The whole country in 1975

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.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2113 to 157 mph
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in Colorado in 1975

May 10 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 10	2:45 PM MDT	F3	Washington	8.0	440			$5,000 to $50,000
May 10	4:45 PM MDT	F2	Cheyenne	21.9	440

May 12 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 12	1:40 PM MDT	F0	Arapahoe	0.3	50
May 12	3:15 PM MDT	F1	El Paso	0.3	100
May 12	4:08 PM MDT	F1	Lincoln	0.3	100	$5,000 to $50,000
May 12	4:30 PM MDT	F1	Bent	2.0	220	$5,000 to $50,000
May 12	5:08 PM MDT	F2	Kiowa	11.1	440	$50,000 to $500,000

May 18 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 18	1:40 PM MDT	F1	Arapahoe	0.5	110
May 18	1:55 PM MDT	F3	Adams	4.1	440

May 22 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 22	11:15 AM MDT	F2	Bent	2.0	220			$500 to $5,000
May 22	11:15 AM MDT	F1	Bent	2.3	150

May 27 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 27	2:15 PM MDT	F2	Yuma	12.6	200			$500 to $5,000

June 8 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 8	8:05 PM MDT	F2	Prowers	1.0	220			$5,000 to $50,000

June 17 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 17	8:15 PM MDT	F1	Cheyenne	0.3	77
June 17	8:15 PM MDT	F1	Cheyenne	0.5	100

June 18 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 18	6:30 PM MDT	F1	Weld	1.0	100			$500 to $5,000

June 20 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 20	2:30 PM MDT	F2	Pitkin	0.5	100			$5,000 to $50,000

July 22 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 22	2:11 PM MDT	F1	Weld	0.2	100
July 22	7:00 PM MDT	F0	Yuma	0.1	50

July 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 23	12:30 PM MDT	F1	Weld	2.0	50

Nearby

Every tornado in Colorado since 1950 Warnings in force in Colorado The live radar over Colorado

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.