Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2009

EF0 tornado, Sugar City to Ordway, Colorado, September 3, 2009

From Sugar City to Ordway, this EF0 tornado ran 2.4 miles across Crowley County on September 3, 2009, touching down at 3:28 PM MDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
September 3, 2009
Touchdown
3:28 PM MDT (21:28 UTC)
Lifted
3:38 PM MDT (21:38 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
2.4 miles (3.8 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Crowley County
Touchdown point
38.242, -103.694
Lift-off point
38.242, -103.738
Record number
0909031528-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A line of strong thunderstorms produced a non-mesocyclone tornado (landspout) northeast of Ordway that moved from east to west, and some sub-severe hail over portions of southeast Colorado.

A landspout moved westward through open fields just south of County Road J, and caused no damage.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:09 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
20:58 UTC21:23 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
21:30 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
21:35 UTC21:55 UTCTornado WarningPUB

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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

9.5 hours before the tornado, 186 km from the path. September 3, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2009-09-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 23 joules per kilogram, CIN -334, lifted condensation level 2355 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 2009-09-03The 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 22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
23 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-334 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2355 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDNR), 00:00Z

2.5 hours after it, 186 km from the path. September 4, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2009-09-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -75176, lifted condensation level 3652 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2009-09-04The 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 -26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-75176 J/kg
Surface CAPE
101 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3652 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-20 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
10.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:28 UTCTORNADO4 Ene OrdwayCrowley, COREVISED TORNADO LOCATION. MOVED WESTWARD OVER OPEN FIELD AND LIFTED 2 MILES NE ORDWAY AT 349 PM.
21:30 UTCTORNADO10 Ne ManzanolaCrowley, COLAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY RECEIVED PUBLIC REPORTS OF TORNADO.
21:30 UTCTORNADO15 N OrdwayCrowley, COTRAINED SPOTTER TRAVELING NORTH...OBSERVED TORNADO COLUMN TO THEIR SOUTH.
21:33 UTCTORNADOSe OrdwayCrowley, CONEIGHBORING COUNTY SHERIFF RECEIVED MULTIPLE PUBLIC REPORTS.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

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.