EF0 tornado, Lowland, Colorado, June 7, 2009

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 mph

   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

EF0

Date

June 7, 2009

Touchdown

2:43 PM MDT (20:43 UTC)

Lifted

2:49 PM MDT (20:49 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Elbert County

Touchdown point

39.540, -104.040

Lift-off point

39.540, -104.040

Record number

0906071443-01

Severe thunderstorms in Denver and the surrounding metropolitan area produced five tornadoes, large hail and damaging thunderstorm winds. The strongest of the tornadoes touched down near Southlands Mall, in southeast Aurora. Two men were injured, one seriously. Overall the damage was rated mild to moderate, which translated to an EF1 rating. Four other tornadoes touched down, two of which caused minor damage. Another EF1 tornado damaged a home, several outbuildings, and injured some horses in unincorporated Elbert County.||In addition to the tornadoes, large hail from 1 to 3 inches in diameter was observed. In parts of Aurora and Centennial, thunderstorm winds blew down power lines and caused electrical outages. Approximately 8,000 homes and businesses were left without power for nearly two hours. Most of the damage consisted of broken windows and roofs. This day was the first in a series of eight to cause damage along the Urban Corridor. Damage to homes and property along the Front Range totalled $161 million during the 8-day span, making it the state's fifth highest insurance loss. The majority of the property damage was caused by hail; 21,000 automobile claims and 13,000 homeowner claims were filed.

A small tornado touched down over open fields.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS BOU issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:24 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:02 UTC and running to 23:00 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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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.

The Denver radar (KFTG), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:42 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 2009 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.