Tornadoes · United States · Colorado

1979 tornadoes in Colorado

37 tornadoes touched down in Colorado in 1979, 14 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

1978 1980 The whole country in 1979

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 1979

March 29 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 29	5:15 PM MST	F0	Douglas	0.2	20

May 1 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 1	2:10 PM MDT	F1	Baca	1.0	100			$500 to $5,000
May 1	2:10 PM MDT	F1	Baca	0.5	17

May 29 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 29	2:06 PM MDT	F0	Logan	0.2	17

June 6 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 6	8:08 PM MDT	F0	Morgan	0.3	27			under $50
June 6	8:22 PM MDT	F1	Morgan	0.5	50			$50 to $500

June 16 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 16	7:50 PM MDT	F2	Cheyenne	3.0	200			$500,000 to $5 million

June 22 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 22	10:55 PM MDT	F0	Kiowa	0.3	27

June 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 24	1:30 PM MDT	F3	El Paso	4.3	50		1	$50,000 to $500,000

June 27 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 27	8:30 PM MDT	F0	Logan	2.0	50
June 27	9:20 PM MDT	F0	Yuma	2.7	50
June 27	9:40 PM MDT	F0	Logan	2.0	77

June 28 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 28	4:10 PM MDT	F0	Washington	0.3	27
June 28	6:45 PM MDT	F1	Cheyenne	1.0	50	$50 to $500
June 28	8:25 PM MDT	F1	Prowers	0.5	27
June 28	9:25 PM MDT	F1	Baca	0.5	27

July 6 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
July 6	3:00 PM MDT	F0	Adams	0.3	20
July 6	3:00 PM MDT	F0	Arapahoe	0.3	20
July 6	3:10 PM MDT	F0	Weld	1.0	30
July 6	3:10 PM MDT	F0	Weld	1.0	30
July 6	7:00 PM MDT	F0	Bent	0.5	20

July 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 12	9:30 PM MDT	F0	Weld	2.0	50			$5,000 to $50,000

July 14 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 14	7:30 PM MDT	F0	Bent	1.0	40			$500 to $5,000

July 15 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 15	6:25 PM MDT	F0	Huerfano	0.5	27
July 15	6:25 PM MDT	F0	Huerfano	0.5	27

July 16 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 16	5:20 PM MDT	F0	Weld	1.0	27
July 16	6:00 PM MDT	F0	Washington	2.0	50

July 17 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
July 17	4:30 PM MDT	F0	Douglas	1.0	50	$50 to $500
July 17	5:15 PM MDT	F0	Douglas	1.0	50	$50 to $500
July 17	7:12 PM MDT	F0	Pueblo	1.0	27
July 17	8:09 PM MDT	F0	Otero	0.5	50

July 18 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 18	4:00 PM MDT	F0	El Paso	0.5	27

July 22 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 22	9:15 PM MDT	F0	Larimer	1.0	27

July 25 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 25	4:30 PM MDT	F1	Teller	0.2	100

July 27 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 27	4:40 PM MDT	F0	El Paso	1.0	27

July 29 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 29	2:35 PM MDT	F0	Weld	0.3	27
July 29	5:00 PM MDT	F0	El Paso	0.5	27			$50 to $500

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.