Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2012
EF2 tornado, Mc Clave, Colorado, April 27, 2012
This EF2 tornado ran 6.2 miles across Bent County on April 27, 2012, touching down at 1:44 AM MDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 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
- April 27, 2012
- Touchdown
- 1:44 AM MDT (07:44 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:54 AM MDT (07:54 UTC)
- On the ground
- 10 minutes
- Path length
- 6.2 miles (10.0 km)
- Path width
- 300 yards (274 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $25,000
- County
- Bent County
- Touchdown point
- 38.120, -102.770
- Lift-off point
- 38.290, -102.780
- Record number
- 1204270144-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Five separate tornadoes occurred across Bent...Prowers...and Kiowa Counties...causing EF0 to EF2 damage. Eight people were injured...and one horse was killed. Four dwelling were destroyed...along with two mobile homes...one garage...and a metal building. A hog farm was destroyed...including 18 hog barns. Horse corrals were also damaged and destroyed. An electrical substation southeast of Lamar was damaged which contributed to a massive power outage in the Lamar area until the late afternoon hours. Two communication towers were also destroyed.
Two locations experienced heavy damage. On State Highway 196 a metal building was destroyed and a home damaged...and four metal power poles were bent over. On County Road PP a metal barn was damaged and horse corrals were destroyed. One horse was killed.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
19 minutes of warning. NWS PUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:25 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:15 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 03:05 UTC and running to 10:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:42 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | PUB |
| 21:10 UTC | 21:31 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PUB |
| 21:13 UTC | 21:42 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PUB |
| 21:16 UTC | 21:36 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PUB |
| 03:05 UTC | 10:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | PUB |
| 06:22 UTC | 07:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PUB |
| 07:09 UTC | 08:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PUB |
| 07:25 UTC | 08:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | PUB |
| 07:44 UTC | 08:03 UTC | Tornado Warning | PUB |
| 07:55 UTC | 08:16 UTC | Tornado 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:36 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), 00:00Z
7.7 hours before the tornado, 189 km from the path. April 27, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 95 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -85 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 571 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2538 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 13 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 42 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 175 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.7 K/km
Denver, CO (KDNR), 12:00Z
4.3 hours after it, 189 km from the path. April 27, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 145 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 363 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 557 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -78 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -132 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.4 K/km
The radar
The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:45 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07:54 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 9 N Brandon | Kiowa, CO | ALSO WIND GUSTS TO 50 MPH |
| 07:55 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 3 S Lamar | Prowers, CO | |
| 07:58 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Se Lamar | Prowers, CO | DAMAGE TO AN ELECTRICAL SUBSTATION ALONG COUNTY ROAD EE. TIME APPROXIMATE. |
| 08:40 UTC | TORNADO | 10 Ne Lamar | Prowers, CO | PUBLIC REPORT VIA PROWERS COUNTY COMMS...TIME APPROXIMATE |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 27, 2012
7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 27 | 1:49 AM MDT | EF2 | Prowers, CO | 2.0 | 200 | $500,000 | ||
| April 27 | 1:58 AM MDT | EF2 | Prowers, CO | 19.1 | 200 | 7 | $500,000 | |
| April 27 | 2:35 AM MDT | EF1 | Kiowa, CO | 2.2 | 100 | 1 | $40,000 | |
| April 27 | 2:40 AM MDT | EF2 | Kiowa, CO | 0.7 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| April 27 | 4:38 PM CDT | EF0 | Cloud, KS | 2.0 | 100 | |||
| April 27 | 4:43 PM CDT | EF0 | Phillips, KS | 4.4 | 40 | |||
| April 27 | 5:59 PM CDT | EF0 | Morris, KS | 0.0 | 10 |
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.