Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2001
F0 tornado, Limon, Colorado, June 9, 2001
This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Lincoln County on June 9, 2001, touching down at 2:14 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
- June 9, 2001
- Touchdown
- 2:14 PM MDT (20:14 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Lincoln County
- Touchdown point
- 39.420, -103.700
- Lift-off point
- 39.420, -103.700
- Record number
- 945
What the Weather Service recorded
A small tornado touched down but did no damage.
A small tornado touched down but did no damage.
A large tornado, approximately 1/2 mile wide, touched down briefly. The tornado took out about 200 yards of fencing and windbreaks. One windmill was destroyed and a corn crop was damaged.
A small tornado touched down but did no damage.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
0 minutes of warning. NWS BOU issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:14 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:14 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | BOU |
| 20:31 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | BOU |
| 21:17 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | BOU |
| 22:01 UTC | 22:40 UTC | Tornado Warning | BOU |
| 22:39 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Tornado 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 19:39 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.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Denver/Boulder, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 9, 2:35 AM MDT, 11 hours 39 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jun 9, 2:35 AM MDT, 11 hours 39 minutes before
NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER COLORADO 235 AM MDT SAT JUN 9 2001 UPR RDG WILL REMAIN OVR CNTRL RCKYS THRU SUN NGT BUT FLO ALF WILL BCM MORE W TO SWLY IN DIRECTION ON SUN AS UPR RDG GETS FLATTENED BY PAC NW SHT WV. VRY WK SHT WV MOVES ACRS AREA TDA WHICH SHUD BE ENUF TO KICK OFF ISOLD TSTMS WITH DRY MICROBURSTS AS BOTH NGM AND MESOETA FCST UPR AIR SOUNDINGS SHW INVRTD V. FCST SFC BASED CAPES RANGE FM ONLY 200-400J/KG. WK SURGE OF HI PRES MOVES S OVR HI PLAINS ARND MIDDAY SUN. THIS MAY INCRS LO LVL MSTR SUMWHT BUT COOLER TEMPS SHUD STABILIZE AMS AND DAMPEN CONVECTIVE DVLPMNT. ANYWAY EVENT WILL BE SHT LIVED AS LEE TROFG BCMS RE-ESTABLISHED BY SUN NGT. TEMPS WILL BE QUITE WRM TDA AND SHUD SEE 1ST 90 DEG READING OF SEASON AT DEN. WITH WK SURGE ON SUN TEMPS SHUD RMN BLO 90 DEG MARK MST PLACES E OF MTNS. WILL GENLY COMPROMISE BTWN WRMR NGM MOS TEMP GDNC AND COOLER AVN MOS. GARD...WFO BOULDER .DEN...NONE.
In the hours before
Special weather statement, Jun 9, 10:20 AM MDT, 3 hours 54 minutes before
COZ030>051-092000- SIGNIFICANT WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 1020 AM MDT SAT JUN 9 2001 THIS OUTLOOK PERTAINS TO THE FOLLOWING COLORADO COUNTIES ADAMS ARAPAHOE BOULDER CLEAR CREEK DENVER DOUGLAS ELBERT GILPIN GRAND JACKSON JEFFERSON LARIMER LINCOLN LOGAN MORGAN PARK PHILLIPS SEDGWICK SUMMIT WASHINGTON WELD SYNOPSIS...A WEAK UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL MOVE ACROSS NORTH CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST COLORADO LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. A FEW SHOWERS AND STORMS WERE ALREADY OCCURRING ALONG AND JUST AHEAD OF THIS DISTURBANCE. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THUNDERSTORMS CAN BE EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING AS THIS FEATURE MOVES EASTWARD ONTO THE PLAINS. THE HIGHEST MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY IS EXPECTED OVER THE EASTERN PLAINS OF COLORADO...GENERALLY IN AREAS EAST OF A LINE FROM FORT MORGAN TO LIMON. AS ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOP OVER THE FRONT RANGE AND MOVE EASTWARD INTO THE MORE UNSTABLE AIR BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON...A COUPLE STORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE. BECAUSE WIND SHEAR IS RATHER WEAK...LARGE HAIL AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE THE BIGGEST THREAT FROM THE STORMS. SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED IN AREAS EAST OF A LINE FROM FORT MORGAN TO LIMON AFTER 330 PM. BARJENBRUCH
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), 12:00Z
8.2 hours before the tornado, 64 km from the path. June 9, 2001.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 47 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -424 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2745 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 17 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 55 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 72 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
Denver, CO (KDNR), 00:00Z
3.8 hours after it, 64 km from the path. June 10, 2001.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 63 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -245 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 726 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 3205 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 10 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 19 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.9 K/km
The surface observations
Limon Municipal (LIC), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:55 UTC | 83 | 58 | 190° 11 kt | 1017.3 | ||
| 19:55 UTC | 86 | 57 | 190° 14 kt | 1016.3 | ||
| 20:55 UTC | 82 | 57 | 190° 14 kt | 1015.2 | ||
| 21:35 UTC | 78.8 | 51.8 | 60° 14 kt | 1015.9 | ||
| 21:55 UTC | 72 | 53 | 90° 14 kt | 1016.6 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Denver radar (KFTG), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:13 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 2001 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 9, 2001
16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 9 | 3:15 PM EDT | F0 | Union, SC | 0.5 | 0 | |||
| June 9 | 2:12 PM MDT | F0 | Lincoln, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 2:32 PM MDT | F0 | Lincoln, CO | 5.0 | 880 | |||
| June 9 | 3:10 PM MDT | F0 | Lincoln, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 4:18 PM MDT | F0 | Lincoln, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 6:26 PM EDT | F0 | Alpena, MI | 0.3 | 10 | |||
| June 9 | 4:35 PM MDT | F0 | Lincoln, CO | 0.5 | 1,320 | |||
| June 9 | 6:35 PM EDT | F1 | Gladwin, MI | 3.0 | 30 | $90,000 | ||
| June 9 | 4:50 PM MDT | F0 | Weston, WY | 0.5 | 10 | 2 | ||
| June 9 | 7:10 PM CDT | F1 | Emmons, ND | 10.0 | 60 | 1 | ||
| June 9 | 10:01 PM CDT | F0 | McPherson, NE | 5.0 | 880 | $3,000 | ||
| June 9 | 10:26 PM CDT | F0 | Brule, SD | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 11:40 PM CDT | F0 | Miner, SD | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 11:58 PM CDT | F0 | McCook, SD | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 12:14 AM CDT | F0 | McCook, SD | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 12:40 AM CDT | F0 | Brookings, SD | 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.