Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 1996
F0 tornado, Arvada, Colorado, July 28, 1996
This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Jefferson County on July 28, 1996, touching down at 6:45 PM MDT and reaching 50 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 mphthis tornado
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.
The record
- Rating
- F0
- Date
- July 28, 1996
- Touchdown
- 6:45 PM MDT (00:45 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Jefferson County
- Touchdown point
- 39.800, -105.080
- Lift-off point
- 39.800, -105.080
- Record number
- 558
What the Weather Service recorded
Several weak tornadoes developed along an outflow boundary that moved through southern Weld, northern Jefferson and Adams Counties. The tornadoes caused little damage. The outflow boundary was associated with a line of thunderstorms which moved through the Fort Collins and Galeton areas earlier in the afternoon.
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.
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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:57 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 surface observations
Broomfield/Jeffco (BJC), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:52 UTC | 82.4 | 50 | 180° 20 kt | 1024.4 | ||
| 23:50 UTC | 77 | 48.2 | 250° 5 kt | 1024.4 | ||
| 00:47 UTC | 66.2 | 53.6 | 350° 26 kt | 1028.1 | ||
| 01:45 UTC | 60.8 | 57.2 | 290° 20 kt | 1028.4 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
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 28, 1996
12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 28 | 6:00 PM EDT | F0 | Osceola, MI | 0.1 | 10 | $2,000 | ||
| July 28 | 5:28 PM CDT | F1 | Sheridan, ND | 8.0 | 15 | |||
| July 28 | 5:45 PM CDT | F1 | McLean, ND | 3.0 | 20 | $70,000 | ||
| July 28 | 6:00 PM MDT | F0 | Adams, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| July 28 | 7:02 PM CDT | F0 | Eddy, ND | 1.0 | 25 | |||
| July 28 | 6:08 PM MDT | F0 | Adams, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| July 28 | 6:08 PM MDT | F0 | Adams, CO | 5.0 | 440 | |||
| July 28 | 7:10 PM CDT | F0 | Eddy, ND | 1.0 | 25 | |||
| July 28 | 6:14 PM MDT | F0 | Adams, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| July 28 | 6:15 PM MDT | F0 | Weld, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| July 28 | 6:22 PM MDT | F0 | Adams, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| July 28 | 7:25 PM CDT | F0 | Menard, IL | 0.1 | 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.