EF3 tornado, Platteville Arpt to Severance, Colorado, May 22, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mphthis tornado

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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

EF3

Date

May 22, 2008

Touchdown

11:26 AM MDT (17:26 UTC)

Lifted

12:16 PM MDT (18:16 UTC)

On the ground

50 minutes

Path length

38.7 miles (62.3 km)

Path width

1,760 yards (1609 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

78

Property damage

$147 million

Counties

Weld and Larimer counties

Touchdown point

40.232, -104.754

Lift-off point

40.720, -105.110

Record number

0805221126-01

A powerful tornado swept north-northwestward across Weld County, carving a path of destruction, nearly 39 miles in length. The tornado, up to one-mile wide at times, initially touched down northeast of Platteville and finally lifted 6 miles west-northwest of Wellington. A tornado assessment in the aftermath of the tornado revealed extensive areas of damage. On the enhanced Fujita Scale there were pockets of EF3 damage, mainly near the Missile Silo Park Campground, and to businesses and home in eastern Windsor. Farmers also reported extensive damage to crops and irrigation equipment. ||There was one fatality, and 78 injuries ranging from broken bones to minor cuts and lacerations. One man was killed when he tried to escape a trailer park in his motor home. Tractor trailers were flipped along U.S. Highway 85, and over 200 power poles were snapped or blown down. Approximately 60,000 people were left without electricity. The tornado overturned 15 railroad cars and destroyed a lumber car on the Great Western Railway of Colorado. The tornado also flattened Windsor's main feedlot and destroyed a dairy barn. Most of the four-hundred cows were killed in the tornado or destroyed later. In addition to the damaging winds, the thunderstorm also produced hail up to the size of baseballs. ||Another tornado rated an EF1, from a separate severe thunderstorm, briefly touched down near Dacono and destroyed 5 buildings. The tornado overturned a five-wheel trailer and injured the man who was sitting inside. ||Preliminary estimates from FEMA indicated 850 homes were damaged, and nearly 300 homes were significantly damaged or destroyed. The Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association reported $1 million of damage to electric transmission lines. Privately insured damages totaled $147 million, making it the state's 4th costliest disaster.

A powerful tornado swept north-northwestward across Weld County and into Larimer County, carving a path of destruction, nearly 39 miles in length. The tornado, up to one-mile wide at times, initially touched down northeast of Platteville and finally lifted 6 miles west-northwest of Wellington. A tornado assessment in the aftermath of the tornado revealed extensive areas of damage. On the enhanced Fujita Scale there were pockets of EF3 damage, mainly near the Missile Silo Park Campground, and to businesses and home in eastern Windsor. ||There was one fatality, and 78 injuries. One man was killed when he tried to escape the trailer park in his motor home. Preliminary estimates from FEMA indicated 850 homes were damaged, and nearly 300 homes were significantly damaged or destroyed. Privately insured damages totaled $147 million, and the Poudre Valley Rural Electric Associated reported $1 million of damage to electric transmission lines.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS BOU issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:18 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:00 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:35 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.

Fort Collins (Awos) (FNL), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:27 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

27 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.