Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 1996

F1 tornado, Holyoke, Colorado, May 22, 1996

This F1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Phillips County on May 22, 1996, touching down at 6:40 PM MDT and reaching 660 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
May 22, 1996
Touchdown
6:40 PM MDT (00:40 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
660 yards (604 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Phillips County
Touchdown point
40.580, -102.400
Lift-off point
40.580, -102.400
Record number
301

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS BOU issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:29 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:04 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
00:29 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningBOU
00:57 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningBOU

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 06:19 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

0.7 hours before the tornado, 106 km from the path. May 23, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 1996-05-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 173 joules per kilogram, CIN -30, lifted condensation level 3436 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 1996-05-23The 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 -21 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
173 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-30 J/kg
Surface CAPE
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3436 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-21 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDNR), 12:00Z

11.3 hours after it, 106 km from the path. May 23, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 1996-05-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 9 joules per kilogram, CIN -88, lifted condensation level 616 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 1996-05-23The 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 54 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
9 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-88 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
616 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
54 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
198 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Holyoke (HEQ), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:00 UTC74.8463120° 8 kt1002.7
23:15 UTC90° 9 kt1002TS
00:00 UTC7063.8670° 8 kt1001TS
01:19 UTC60° 15 kt1002.4TS
02:00 UTC6052.8840° 15 kt1002.4-TSRA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 147 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:39 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 May 22, 1996

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 226:50 PM MDTF0Dundy, NE1.050
May 226:52 PM MDTF0Phillips, CO0.150
May 228:04 PM CDTF0Rawlins, KS2.0100
May 227:15 PM MDTF1Yuma, CO3.0100
May 228:30 PM CDTF0Seward, NE0.110$1,000
May 228:55 PM CDTF0Rawlins, KS0.110
May 228:55 PM CDTF0Lancaster, NE0.110
May 229:11 PM CDTF0Rawlins, KS1.030
May 229:30 PM CDTF1Decatur, KS4.050
May 2211:15 PM CDTF0Webster, NE0.210
May 2211:20 PM CDTF0Nuckolls, NE0.210

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.