Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2010
EF2 tornado, Campo, Colorado, May 31, 2010
This EF2 tornado ran 9.2 miles across Baca County on May 31, 2010, touching down at 6:09 PM MDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 of property damage.
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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF2
- Date
- May 31, 2010
- Touchdown
- 6:09 PM MDT (00:09 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:25 PM MDT (00:25 UTC)
- On the ground
- 16 minutes
- Path length
- 9.2 miles (14.9 km)
- Path width
- 300 yards (274 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $30,000
- County
- Baca County
- Touchdown point
- 37.069, -102.603
- Lift-off point
- 36.995, -102.464
- Record number
- 1005311809-01
The damage survey
5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PUB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.
- WIndmill bent to the ground but remains anchored in its concrete foundation.
- Outbuilding remained intact but was rolled around 20 feet to the north. It was not connected with the foundation.
- Eight power poles snapped off and taken down.
- Eight power poles snapped off and downed along County Road C.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A very long-lasting, slow moving supercell storm produced large hail and three tornadoes from west central to southeast Baca County.
A tornado moved southeast, crossing US Highway 287 south of Campo. Eight power poles were snapped off west of the highway and on County Road C. Two windmills were also hit, and a storage shed was tipped over and moved 20 feet. The tornado ended shortly before the Oklahoma state line.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
27 minutes of warning. NWS PUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:42 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:05 UTC and running to 01:55 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:57 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | PUB |
| 20:05 UTC | 01:55 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | PUB |
| 20:48 UTC | 21:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | PUB |
| 21:45 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | PUB |
| 22:42 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | PUB |
| 22:47 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | PUB |
| 23:42 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | PUB |
| 00:49 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PUB |
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 19:39 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.
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.
Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z
0.2 hours before the tornado, 214 km from the path. June 1, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1279 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -32 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2327 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2207 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 78 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 239 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 5.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.4 K/km
Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z
11.8 hours after it, 214 km from the path. June 1, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 727 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -380 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 66 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1794 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 81 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 216 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
The surface observations
Springfield/Comanche Natl Grass (SPD), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:56 UTC | 67 | 60 | 170° 16 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 00:56 UTC | 69 | 55 | 190° 14 kt | 23 | 1013.2 | |
| 01:56 UTC | 71 | 60 | 170° 19 kt | 24 | 1012.9 | |
| 02:56 UTC | 68 | 61 | 160° 24 kt | 31 | 1013.9 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 213 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:07 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:12 UTC | HAIL 2.5 | 12 S Pritchett | Baca, CO | |
| 23:12 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 12 Sse Pritchett | Baca, CO | WAS REPORTED 6 SE OF ELDER |
| 23:43 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Campo | Baca, CO | |
| 23:46 UTC | HAIL 1 | 4 Nnw Campo | Baca, CO | |
| 23:50 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | 3 N Campo | Baca, CO | |
| 00:00 UTC | HAIL 1 | Campo | Baca, CO | TIME ESTIMATED |
| 00:00 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Campo | Baca, CO | TIME ESTIMATED |
| 00:06 UTC | HAIL 2.5 | Campo | Baca, CO | |
| 00:09 UTC | TORNADO | 3 S Campo | Baca, CO |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 31, 2010
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.