F0 tornado, Sheridan Lake to Granada, Colorado, May 31, 1996

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 31, 1996

Touchdown

5:20 PM MDT (23:20 UTC)

Path length

17.5 miles (28.2 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Kiowa County

Touchdown point

38.430, -102.530

Lift-off point

38.250, -102.320

Record number

286

A small tornado (land spout) was spotted over the open country east of Eads, about 5 miles north of Sheridan Lake.

The largest, most destructive tornado on the 31st touched down near the Chivington Reservoir in Kiowa county at 520 pm MDT. It moved southeast at high speed, crossing US 385 at about 535 pm MDT and the Kiowa/Prowers county line at around 540 pm MDT. By the time the tornado dissipated (shortly after crossing into northern Prowers county) it was close to 1/4 mile wide. Along its path, the tornado destroyed 5 grain bins (mostly empty), the north side of a cinder block barn, and damaged the roof and fiberglass siding of a mobile home.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

20 minutes of warning. NWS PUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:00 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:25 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 08:18 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 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.

Lamar (LAA), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.