Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 1981

F1 tornado, Weld County, Colorado, June 3, 1981

This F1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Weld County on June 3, 1981, touching down at 3:20 PM MDT and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

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

  3. 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.

  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
F1
Date
June 3, 1981
Touchdown
3:20 PM MDT (21:20 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Weld County
Touchdown point
40.220, -104.820
Record number
352

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

9.3 hours before the tornado, 141 km from the path. June 3, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 1981-06-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -6645, lifted condensation level 1654 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1981-06-03The 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 21 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6645 J/kg
Surface CAPE
24 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1654 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
29 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
14 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 141 km from the path. June 4, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 1981-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -7179, lifted condensation level 1803 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1981-06-04The 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 52 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.1939Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7179 J/kg
Surface CAPE
173 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1803 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-16 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1981 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 3, 1981

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 31:05 AM CDTF0Brazoria, TX0.120$500 to $5,000
June 312:30 PM CDTF0Kiowa, KS0.517
June 31:05 PM CDTF2Concordia Parish, LA0.530$500 to $5,000
June 32:55 PM CDTF0Smith, TX0.110
June 32:20 PM MDTF2Denver, CO0.150$500,000 to $5 million
June 32:55 PM MDTF2Adams, CO2.313342$5 million to $50 million
June 33:18 PM MDTF1Weld, CO0.9502$500,000 to $5 million
June 33:30 PM MDTF1Douglas, CO0.340
June 33:48 PM MDTF1Weld, CO0.240
June 34:00 PM MDTF1Weld, CO0.240
June 36:30 PM CDTF0Jones, TX0.110
June 39:30 PM CDTF1Oklahoma, OK1.01002$500,000 to $5 million
June 39:30 PM CDTF2Terry, TX2.040$5,000 to $50,000
June 39:55 PM CDTF1Lynn, TX1.030under $50
June 311:00 PM CDTF0Scurry, TX0.530under $50

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.