Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 1996
F1 tornado, Strasburg, Colorado, July 13, 1996
This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Adams County on July 13, 1996, touching down at 10:55 PM MDT and reaching 100 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.
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 mphthis tornado
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.
The record
- Rating
- F1
- Date
- July 13, 1996
- Touchdown
- 10:55 PM MDT (04:55 UTC)
- Path length
- 2.0 miles (3.2 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Adams County
- Touchdown point
- 39.720, -104.300
- Lift-off point
- 39.720, -104.300
- Record number
- 543
What the Weather Service recorded
A fast moving tornado ripped a 12-mile path of destruction near Strasburg, in eastern Adams County. The tornado caused extensive structural damage to several galvanized metal grain silos, farm buildings and sheds in the area. The roof of a two-story log home was completely torn off. The home received substantial damage from the wind and heavy rain that followed the tornado. Several other homes in the area sustained roof damage and a number of power poles were downed along Highway 36.
The second tornado was much weaker and on the ground for a much shorter time. The twister did manage to topple a church steeple and down a number of power and light poles. In addition, several large trees were also damaged and a camper shell was picked up and knocked into a nearby tree.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:10 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BOU |
| 23:00 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | BOU |
| 23:15 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BOU |
| 04:44 UTC | 05:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BOU |
| 04:56 UTC | 05:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | BOU |
| 05:33 UTC | 06:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BOU |
Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.
The forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:38 UTC.
SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.
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 (KDNR), 00:00Z
4.9 hours before the tornado, 93 km from the path. July 14, 1996.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1605 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -40 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1199 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1342 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 10 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 79 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 298 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.9
- Supercell composite
- 7.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.0 K/km
Denver, CO (KDNR), 12:00Z
7.1 hours after it, 93 km from the path. July 14, 1996.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -102577 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 818 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 31 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 66 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
The surface observations
Denver Intnl Airport (DEN), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03:53 UTC | 63 | 58 | 30° 5 kt | 1016.3 | ||
| 04:53 UTC | 62 | 57 | 20° 25 kt | 30 | 1020 | TS |
| 05:08 UTC | 57.2 | 55.4 | 40° 26 kt | 38 | 1019 | |
| 06:00 UTC | 57 | 54 | 350° 14 kt | 1022 | ||
| 06:06 UTC | 57.2 | 55.4 | 340° 18 kt | 1022.4 | ||
| 06:53 UTC | 56 | 54 | 20° 19 kt | 28 | 1023.4 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Denver radar (KFTG), 22 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:46 UTC.
Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track
Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 13, 1996
6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 13 | 2:05 AM EDT | F1 | Charles, MD | 0.3 | 35 | $150,000 | ||
| July 13 | 2:45 AM EDT | F0 | Dorchester, MD | 0.5 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| July 13 | 3:35 AM EDT | F1 | Calvert, MD | 1.2 | 50 | $120,000 | ||
| July 13 | 3:40 PM MDT | F0 | Weld, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| July 13 | 6:40 PM MDT | F2 | Logan, CO | 0.5 | 100 | |||
| July 13 | 10:45 PM MDT | F2 | Adams, CO | 12.0 | 440 | $220,000 |
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.