Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2003

F0 tornado, Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, June 1, 2003

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Cheyenne County on June 1, 2003, touching down at 2:05 PM MDT and reaching 20 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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 1, 2003
Touchdown
2:05 PM MDT (20:05 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cheyenne County
Touchdown point
38.780, -102.300
Lift-off point
38.780, -102.300
Record number
1102

What the Weather Service recorded

A slow moving surface boundary resulted in rapid development of thunderstorms during the early afternoon hours of June 1st across eastern Kit Carson and Cheyenne counties in eastern Colorado. A small outbreak of landspout type tornadoes occurred over a 30 minute period as the storms developed. Although all tornadoes occurred over open county with minimal or no damage...some of the tornadoes were witnessed for 10 to 15 minutes by off-duty NWS employees and the general public. Weak winds aloft and slow movement of the boundary resulted in tornadoes moving at only 5 mph, with some remaining stationary.

A fence received minor damage.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:02 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:22 UTC20:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
20:02 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningGLD
20:45 UTC21:30 UTCTornado WarningGLD

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:24 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), 12:00Z

8.1 hours before the tornado, 145 km from the path. June 1, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2003-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 17 joules per kilogram, CIN -273, lifted condensation level 2241 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 2003-06-01The 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 -28 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 10 knots.1939Sfc1 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
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-273 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2241 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDNR), 00:00Z

3.9 hours after it, 145 km from the path. June 2, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2003-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 10 joules per kilogram, CIN -61, lifted condensation level 2391 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 2003-06-02The 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 -6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.193958Sfc1 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
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-61 J/kg
Surface CAPE
92 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2391 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
146 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Burlington (ITR), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:53 UTC7757350° 12 kt1012.2
19:46 UTC69.860.8350° 15 kt1012.5VCTS -RA
19:53 UTC6961360° 14 kt1012.5VCTS -RA
20:53 UTC6962350° 14 kt1012.5-RA
21:34 UTC62.655.4320° 25 kt391013.9-RA SQ
21:53 UTC6355320° 27 kt341013.9

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

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:04 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 2003 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 1, 2003

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 11:55 PM MDTF0Cheyenne, CO1.520
June 11:59 PM MDTF0Cheyenne, CO0.830
June 12:05 PM MDTF0Cheyenne, CO0.320
June 12:06 PM MDTF0Sherman, KS0.520
June 12:08 PM MDTF0Sherman, KS0.320
June 12:10 PM MDTF0Sherman, KS0.320
June 12:12 PM MDTF0Cheyenne, CO0.320
June 12:15 PM MDTF0Cheyenne, CO0.530
June 12:24 PM MDTF0Cheyenne, CO0.320

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.